Note from Pastor Jana 250 Years of America: Gratitude and Reflection This year marks 250 years since the founding of the United States. There will be fireworks, celebrations, history specials, and lots of moments inviting us to look back. Milestones like this tend to make us reflect. As I thought about this anniversary, I realized that I feel a mix of things—and maybe you do too. I feel gratitude. Gratitude for freedoms we often take for granted. Gratitude for people who have served and sacrificed. Gratitude for communities that show up for one another in times of need. Gratitude that we can gather openly for worship and live out our faith. But I also think anniversaries are a good time to tell the truth. Like every family and every person, our country has parts of its story that make us proud and parts that remind us we still have work to do. There are moments where we have lived into our highest values and moments where we have fallen short of them. That tension made me think about the words Paul writes in Romans 7—a passage we’ll reflect on together in worship on July 5: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Paul was talking about the struggle within ourselves—that strange experience of wanting to do good and still missing the mark. I wonder if something similar can be true of communities and nations too. We hold beautiful ideals, and yet we do not always live them out fully. The good news is that our faith never asks us to choose between gratitude and honesty. We can give thanks for what is good while still praying for what can be better. So as we celebrate this 250th birthday of America, my prayer is not that we remember a perfect past, but that we become people who help shape a more faithful future. May we continue growing in justice, compassion, humility, and love of neighbor. And may we remember that our hope has never rested in being perfect people or a perfect nation—but in a God who is always at work transforming us. Pastor Jana
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