No Matter What Happens Today, We Are Still Blessed to Live in America

Last Saturday, I went to an early morning classic American car show with friends. Then, I met with a COS patriot for lunch. I spent the afternoon with my family and capped the night off by attending a small high school football game.

I couldn’t help but think how much my day felt like a quintessential American life. I couldn’t help but think how blessed I am to live in a country where I am free to do all of these things without so much as a second thought for my safety.

It’s something we daily take for granted.

At the football game, someone was talking about time he spent in Nicaragua and how dangerous, violent, and poverty-stricken it is there. Honestly, some of the things he said were shocking.

Families using old jeans for pillows. Bullet holes in public places. He couldn’t buy a soda at a gas station without fearing for his safety.

“And all we do here is complain,” someone else commented, disapprovingly. “My Wifi’s too slow,” he mocked.

It’s true. Americans should be more grateful than any other people in the world, yet we often aren’t. We often complain far more than people who have far less.

We complain when our phones are ineffective and slow, forgetting that our advanced technology is a luxury. We whine when stuck in traffic, but the cars on the road are a sign of our great affluence.

According to a 2019 FEE story: “A groundbreaking study by Just Facts has discovered that after accounting for all income, charity, and non-cash welfare benefits like subsidized housing and food stamps, the poorest 20 percent of Americans consume more goods and services than the national averages for all people in most affluent countries. This includes the majority of countries in the prestigious Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including its European members. In other words, if the US “poor” were a nation, it would be one of the world’s richest.”

For as much as we grumble and moan, when was the last time we remembered to be thankful for our abundant wealth and prosperity? When was the last time we felt genuinely blessed to live in a free nation, a safe nation?

Of course, America is in a mess. As a blog writer, I spend my days writing about everything that is wrong with this great nation. But our problems still pale in comparison to the world’s problems. How many of my readers use old jeans for pillows? How often do we see bullet holes in public places?

Why is it that I am afforded the privilege of living a “quintessential American life” while others can’t so much as cross the street without at least slight apprehension?

Election Day is an extraordinary day in America, but we often stake too much on election results. That is not to say we should not vote or take our civic duty seriously (for our right to vote is a great blessing of liberty), but our gratefulness should not be dependent on whether we win or lose. No matter what happens today–even if all of our preferred candidates lose their races–we still have much to be thankful for.

We still are blessed to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world.

I will still love America on November 9th. I will keep fighting for her future. Moreover, I will pray for the prudence to see–even though our country is unquestionably off course–just how good we have it here.