We live in a world where the news headlines get worse every day. Earlier this week a man was killed by cops. Judgements were passed on who was right and who was wrong, even though no one really knew what happened. Protests broke out across the nation. R 
iots afflicted some cities while others chose to demonstrate in peace. Regardless of their methods, they made sure their message rang loud and clear through the streets of the good old U.S.A.
Now the headlines are different. Twelve cops were gunned down in the nation’s ninth largest city. Five of them were killed. Seven of them will live with this day forever marked in their memory.
Today our nation is broken. It’s quieter than before. Because now it is all too clear that we can’t stop hate with #blacklivesmatter or even with #alllivesmatter. We can’t stop hate by Facebooking about it our blogging and vlogging about how we think things need to change.
No. Today hate has gone too far. Too many people have died for the right to be stupid in the streets. Too many people have been gunned down because of anger and anxiety and terror. Today we are at a loss because now it seems we’
ve lost too much.
Was it the man gunned down by cops or the cops gunned down by a man that changed things? I’d say neither. These things have been weighing us down for years now. It’s not new, but somehow it’s a shock to the system. We’ve taken ‘In God We Trust’ and buried it deep in the walls of Washington and now we don’t know where to turn.
You’re probably wondering what happened to your encouragement for today. It’s here. But in a world darkened by death, sometimes the encouragement comes from muck.
On Monday we shot off fireworks and celebrated America’s independence. The ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’. A place where everyone comes to find some kind of dream that’s buried in our soil. A flower that can only be fertilized by America’s beautiful freedom. But soon it becomes all too clear that 
freedom isn’t free.
The flowers are blooming in soil laced with the blood of our soldiers and the hate filled words neighbors scream at neighbors. But it’s also watered with love and peace. That peace is somewhere in there right now. It’s in all of us. There is love here still in the hearts of you and me.
Sometimes freedom hurts. But even as the shots ring out on our very doorsteps, Christ is alive inside the walls. He is here. He is in Dallas with the families of the fallen. He is in Minnesota and Louisiana. He is wherever you are at all times.
And in Him we find freedom.
No, it wasn’t free. But He paid your price and now, because of His gift freely given, we can live in peace.
