My sisters and I played "America the Beautiful" for church this morning. The second verse says:
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
How do liberty and law fit together? I love C.S. Lewis's illustration of a chess game in The Problem of Pain. It's okay to override the rules of chess once in a while. It's okay to let your opponent take back a move. But you cannot override the rules all the time. What if you let your opponent take back all the moves he doesn't like? What if you let him move his pieces in whatever way he wants, as far as he wants, in whatever direction he pleases? You would destroy the game.
It reminds me of how we played Monopoly when we were younger. When people went broke, we would loan them money. The game would never end. Needless to say, we don't play Monopoly anymore.
Many people today yearn for absolute freedom, but absolute freedom is not possible. Without law, we have no liberty. This Memorial Day weekend, let us praise God for our liberty and our law and for the men who gave their lives to preserve these blessings.
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