Of patriotism, logs and hope

It's the Fourth of July, and I'm celebrating. How well I recall fireworks and Mom's fried chicken and potato salad from my childhood. For years I served those foods. Now for cardiac reasons it's grilled chicken and garden salads.

Though my diet has changed, my love of country hasn't. Yet my patriotism is sometimes painful. For one thing, I grew up and started seeing more clearly who we humans are. For another, I'm still the same old idealistic me.

When I was a child my dad would laugh at my idealism. So cute. In my teens he warned I'd soon leave my impractical ideals behind. Later in his life, he simply looked at me as if I'd flown in from an alien planet. He was pleased, though, when Lowell entered seminary, something Dad had once wanted to do.

The ideals I bring to my patriotism are those I bring to my life. I learned most of them in Sunday school.

They include: love God, be kind, share. Don't hit, don't retaliate. Love God even more, don't swear and be especially kind to someone who doesn't like you. Don't pray in public so people think you're a good person while you do sneaky things in private. Trust God, be humble and treat others the way you want to be treated.

Jesus nicely summarized all this and more in his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew Chapters 5-7. As I matured in my patriotism, I learned exactly how difficult it is to live by these easy-to-say teachings.

Maybe that's partly why Jesus included this wonderful, worrisome passage about reacting to the failings of others. "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get." Matthew 7:1-2.

He's talking about me. He's asking why I so easily notice a speck in my neighbor's eye while being oblivious to the log in my own. I don't want to be the hypocrite, busily condemning others and doing nothing about my own behavior.

Some might wonder what this has to do with loving my country. To me everything. By naming myself a believer, I acknowledge that I inhabit two worlds.

One is where patriotism lives, where I get tears in my eyes singing, "Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies...." The other, which overlaps in many ways, is God's Kingdom, which is both here and not yet. In God's Kingdom -- now and eternity -- everything depends on doing my best to live Jesus' teachings.

Last week I was so angry at things North Korea and Iran were doing that I wanted to yell, "Boom. Squash 'em." This illustrated the log in my eye and my patriotic pain.

I'm grateful that Jesus loves me unconditionally while calling me to shape up.

So today I'm celebrating my inner contradictions. Maybe I'll make potato salad and fry that chicken. Life is so full of hard choices.

Meanwhile, happy Independence Day.

Joan Uda is a retired United Methodist minister living in Lewis and Clark County. Contact her at joanuda@yahoo.com or PO Box 1065, E. Helena, MT 59635. Her books are available at area bookstores.