Thank God for freedom
by PASTOR LARRY ROWLAND
Rockford Baptist Church
The late President Ronald Reagan loved to tell of a conversation that he had with a Russian delegate at a summit meeting. President Reagan had summarized the political atmosphere of freedom in our country by telling the delegate that any American citizen can walk into the White House, slam his hand on the desk of the President and say, “I don’t like the way Ronald Reagan is running the country.”
Now we recognize that President Reagan was exaggerating the case, because there is tight security surrounding the White House prohibiting just anyone from walking into the chief executive’s office. But his point illustrating the freedom of expression that we have as American citizens was not lost on the Russian delegate who responded in a defensive manner. “Well, I can do the same thing in my country. I can walk into the Kremlin. I can slam my hand on the desk of our leader and I can say, ‘I don’t like the way Ronald Reagan is running the country.’”
How many times do we take the glorious freedoms that we have as American citizens for granted? We have freedom to express ourselves without fear of reprisal, we have freedom to travel where we want to go, we have freedom to pursue the occupations that we feel would most fulfill us, and we have freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our conscience.
I would encourage you to take a moment today to thank Almighty God for the privilege of living with freedom and liberty in this great land of ours. And why not put those freedoms into practice by worshiping in the church of your choice this Sunday?