My Pledge to Become Politically Active

Before I post this I should warn those of you who might be easily offended at my conservative tendencies that I do listen to Glenn Beck.  I do not blindly follow whatever he says but I listen to him and try to glean from him what I can.  While visiting his website today I came across his "40 days and 40 nights pledge."  This pledge stuck me as an incredible starting point for becoming politically active, first I must make sure I set things right in my life and only then will I be able to look outside myself.  I also loved this pledge because I know that it will do nothing but improve my life even if I don't ever take it beyond myself. The pledge is as follows...

"For the next 40 days and 40 nights, I pledge...I COVENANT to practice faith, hope and charity by doing these things.

First...faith. I will pray on my knees every night for the next 40 nights...starting TONIGHT. Pray for guidance, inspiration, peace...pray for the leaders of our country. Pray for their safety, and that they will receive wisdom. I will re-establish my relationship with God.

Hope...hope comes from truth. You can't have hope based on lies. If you go to the doctor and you're in the early stages of cancer, but the doctor tells you that you just have the sniffles...that's false hope, and it won't help you, in fact, it would kill you. So, we have to have honesty, to have real hope. So, I will stop all lies for the next 40 days. That includes lying to myself. I will establish a pattern of honesty and make it become habitual. I will question with boldness...everything...even the things Glenn Beck tells you every night...I will do my own research...and then pray for my own confirmation on the things I have learned. I will find out what is true in my life. 

And third...I will have charity. Charity begins at home. I will do something kind for every member of my family at least once a week. I will write it down, and then do it. Also, I pledge to take notice of how blessed I really am. I live in the greatest country the world has ever known...and even the least prosperous among us, are among the wealthiest people in the world...I will be grateful" [pledge taken from http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/39452/].

I should make another comment here, this pledge is supposed to be in preperation for the 8-28 Restoring Honor rally in Washington D.C. that Glenn is putting on.  I know there are less than 40 days and 40 nights before 8-28 but no matter when we start this pledge it will improve our lives if we take it seriously.  

On questioning with boldness like is mentioned in the pledge, I try to read all the major news networks and a few additional sources to get a broad view of what is going on and what the varying opinions are and then I use the spirit to try and come to my own conclusions.  I will admit that after time and time again of finding out that the things I here from Glenn Beck are true and seeing time and time again those who attack him never attacking him with facts but only attacking him personally I tend to put a little more trust in and weight to the things I here from him.  I still, however, try and get a broad view every day.

So, I started day number one of the 40 days and 40 nights pledge tonight and will move forward day by day.

Historically Significant?

Throughout my life I have always wondered if anything historically significant was going to happen in my lifespan.  Born in the early 80's it seemed as though the major struggles in the world had been solved before I was even old enough to start paying attention.  The World Wars had both been fought and the Cold War was over.  Other trying times like the great depression had come and gone.  Sure this country faced minor wars and minor recessions every once in a while but it seemed like all the truly defining moments in history were over with.  It seemed to me that I was destined to live a life of relative peace and that people were more concerned with their own lives than what was really happening with the government of our nation or any other nation.  It seemed as if the whole world cared more about the olympics or the world cups.  I thought that this was the life that I was going to lead.

I now see that there are forces out there that would lull us all into a relative sense of security and have us all believe that the major happenings of the world are over. These forces are trying to distract us all and then, while we are not paying attention, they are very busy planning our destruction.

This sounds a little dooms dayish so let me explain.  I always though that, while elections did get a lot of attention, it didn't really matter in the end who won because neither person could possibly want anything that was contrary to the constitution of this country.  I naively thought that all politicians had our countries best interest in mind they simply disagreed on how some things should be carried out. Well about the time that the elections started to have major moral issues at the core of all the campaigning is the time that I realized some of these politicians wanted things that just didn't make sense.

Unfortunately it is becoming all too apparent that there are some politicians that are simply in it for personal gain and care nothing for the principles of individual freedom that this nation was founded on.  Even worse, some politicians are in it to bring about transformations that would take us from the only successful free system this world has ever seen and turn us into simply another version of a system that has failed time and time again because it is founded on false doctrines of personal dependance on the state instead of self reliance and freedom. 

I have always been a fan of history. I love learning more about the moments that helped define this country such as the Revolutionary War and other moments in history where this countries greatness has shone through such as in World War II. I adore the key figures who had important roles to play in history and I always find myself wondering if I would have lived during those times in history, would I find myself doing anything similar?  Had I been alive in the time of the Revolutionary War would I have been a loyalist or would I have found the courage to risk it all and stand for freedom?  Would I have been willing to serve as an infantrymen and give my life along with all those men whose sacred sacrifice built this great nation?  If I lived during the time of World War II, would I have stood against evil and enlisted in any branch of the military?

I guess I don't have to wonder any more if anything historically significant will happen during my lifetime because it is becoming painfully obvious that this country has hit a crossroads.  Will we as citizens who believe in small limited government and maximum personal freedom stand up to those people and powers who would pervert the ways of freedom and twist this country into one full of citizens who are subservient to a powerful nanny state?  Do I have it in me to find whatever I can do to make difference so that years from now down the road I can at least tell my children and grand children that I was there and I did all that I could to fight the loss of freedom.

I pray that freedom will not be lost. I pray that this country will return to its founding principles and that we as a nation will be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to solve the problems the right way. I know that this change starts with me and I know it won't be easy but it has to be done. And so, I am ready to start becoming more self-reliant, getting out of debt and helping those around me who stand in need instead of leaving them to depend on the government. May it not be to late for me or for this country to make a difference.

Here Goes Nothing

I have never really been the one to stand up and let my voice be heard. I have never really wanted the attention. Of course I haven't always agreed with what has been going on politically in this country, but I always had the hope that someone else would stand up and do something about it for me. This hope of mine was based on the assumption that there were at least a few good politicians left that actually felt that the purpose of their office was to serve their constituents and not themselves. It was based on the assumption that at least a few of the politicians actually shared my viewpoints and held some common values and principles. However, it is becoming more and more obvious that this hope of mine might be ill-founded. So, with growing frustration at what is happening to this country and how I believe it is headed not only down the wrong track but down the complete opposite track that our founders intended it to head down. As recent bills that have passed through our legislative process have bitten their proverbial thumb at personal freedom and instead seek to setup a nanny state in which "all men are paid for existing, and no man must pay for his sins" I have decided that I cannot sit around any longer and hope that the seemingly few remaining politicians that have any integrity left at all will pull of a miracle and restore common sense and seek to uphold the constitution of this great country. I must try and do anything that I can. The only place that I can think of to start right now is to start a blog and pray that by some small miracle I can find people that think like I do and that together we can start something, anything, to try and tell our elected officials that we demand integrity. We demand representatives who actually feel a responsibility to represent their constituents, who try to the best of their ability to live honest lives and seek to honor the history and the future of this great country. This, then, is my first step to try and do my duty to God and my country and exercise my rights as a free citizen and become a little more involved in what is going on. Here goes nothing.