Shine, sweet freedom

America. The United States. The Constitution. The Bill of Rights. Founding Fathers. Land of Opportunity. The Interstate Highway System. Texas. Empire State Building. Wal-Mart. Navy Seals. Apple pie. ESPN. Puppies. FedEx. Whole Foods. The Flag. Apple. Sounds of silence (Ecclesiastes 9:17). Microsoft Word. Ford F-150. Adoption. TiVo. Caterpillar. Duct tape. Wall Street. Abraham Lincoln. LinkedIn. GEICO. The Mississippi River. Ben & Jerry’s. Bose noise-canceling headphones. Delivery pizza. Self-adhesive stamps. Baseball. Freshly cut grass. Boeing 747. Daylight savings time. GPS. Homemade chocolate chip cookies (Deuteronomy 8:3). Golf. Oscar Mayer. Music festivals. NASCAR. The Great Gatsby. Times Square. PB&J. Independent bookstores. “60 Minutes.” Clif Bars. “Seinfeld.” The Space Needle. Lemonade. Email. The Grand Canyon. U.S. Armed Forces. Magnolia trees. Clint Eastwood. Windex. Gibson Les Paul. Fresh bread. Morton Salt. Senior Prom. Roadside diners. Old Spice. Windy City. Disneyland/Disney World. Louisville Slugger. Philly cheesesteaks. Blogging. Gulfstream G650. Coppertone sunblock. Lawn sprinklers (John 7:38). Food-labeling requirements. Drive-in movies. Sesame Street. Starbucks. Martha’s Vineyard. James Taylor. Facebook. SEC football. Girl Scout Cookies. Subway. “Jeopardy!” The Pulitzer Prize. Playgrounds. National Lampoon's “Vacation.” Grandparents. Car washes. Sunsets. Spaghetti. Singing in the shower. The Bible. Daily devotionals. Prayer. Religious freedom. Sweet freedom, indeed.

I hope you dance

With another year now half gone and high-school graduation ceremonies completed, young adults find themselves facing a myriad of major decisions. Choosing or going to college. Taking that first job. Getting married. Buying that first home. Having a child. There’s no such thing as randomness in God’s great community (2 Samuel 7:28). Given the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see how lives are shaped, molded and impacted with every decision, whether large and small, made along the way. Certainly, whenever one door closes, another one opens, though we’re quick to blame fate or bad luck for outcomes that don’t match our expectations or desires (Deuteronomy 18:13). Do you ever stop to wonder why particular actions bring specific results? Do you consider the circumstances when bad things happen to good people? We should never take good fortune for granted. Life is meant to be lived. Joy is meant to be experienced. Love is meant to be shared. By setting fear aside and giving faith a fighting chance (2 Peter 1:5-7), the chances taken are not merely foolish folly, but calculated risk which can yield amazing blessings. The next time you hear the music of life playing in your head, you might make the choice to sit it out. I hope you dance.