On July 4, 2007, I discovered an essay contest for Citizen magazine at the Focus on the Family's website. The topic was, "Why There is Hope for America." I felt compelled from the heart to write this 500 word essay, so since July 4th I have been working on this essay. I have finished it today and submitted it.
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This is the essay that I wrote:
Why There is Hope for America
by Mark O'Neil
The shores of America have always been a land of hope, hope of religious expression and freedom from Jamestown to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, hope of independence for thirteen colonies seeking to secure certain unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, hope of freedom and equality for Africans abducted and forced into slavery, hope of equal representation and opportunity for women as coequal partners with men, and hope of new beginnings and new opportunities for immigrants leaving the old world behind for the new. However, it was one foundational hope that made America great and from this one hope overflowed all the blessings and the expressions of the other hopes. The founding fathers of our nation expressed this foundational hope for our nation in these words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” For it is when men anchor their hope in their Creator who endowed them with certain unalienable Rights, that these Rights are realized as blessings to men from their Creator, and when men anchor their hope elsewhere, these same blessings suffer from less than the equal and full measure of expression among mankind.
Because hope in the hearts of good men may grow dim and the assurance it brings may be neglected by them, and because there are evil and ignorant men among mankind who have contempt for their Creator, for His obvious design for Nature, and who strive to do all within their limited power to deceive, corrupt, and destroy the hope of men, then we must be ever vigilant to cultivate hope in our Creator and the assurance it brings to the hearts of men. Therefore all men who earnestly seek to experience the equal and full measure of the expression of their Rights should fix the foundation of their hope with a sacred solemn covenant in Nature’s God. For when the People of a nation fix their hope in Nature’s God, then He will restore the blessing of experiencing the equal and full measure of the Rights with which He endowed to them. Therefore when God can find at least one man in our nation who is willing to firmly fix the foundation of his hope in the Creator then there is hope for America.
However, history has proven that not all men will heed the Patriot’s call of our founding fathers to entrust themselves to their Creator. Therefore we must continuously strive to keep the Patriot’s call of our founding fathers by fervently guarding the hope with which we were entrusted until the day the last Patriot is no more. When this day arrives, Nature’s God will intervene into the affairs of men to champion His own cause bringing to full fruition His designs for Nature and for the blessings He endowed to men.
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It was difficult for me to keep the essay within 500 words, because there was so much truth and context that I wanted to bring to this specific subject and that I felt everyone needed to hear. I obviously had more to say on the matter. However, the contest being what it is, this is the best I could do in the time and words allowed.
As an afterword, I based my essay upon the principles from the entire chapter of Jeremiah 35 with the blessing of the Lord in verses 18 and 19 in my mind. I also drew upon my general knowledge of God’s word, the Declaration of Independence, American history, and our national motto, “In God We Trust.” All these afore mentioned things were combined and written in a style to honor the heritage which our founding fathers passed on to us, their posterity, and to hopefully pass on these same things and this essay on to our own posterity.
