The Declaration of Independence. Studied as an outline and admired for it's poignant and brave "declarations," this straight-forward and to-the-point document outlines, defines, and distinguishes the roles of the government and the governed for which this government was created and established. It is a beautifully written document, timeless in the ideas it sets forward and resolute in the convictions contained within. But is it RELEVANT for today's generation? Are the defined roles of both the government and the people it was created for even APPLICABLE in today's society, or is it merely another historical document, that while intriguing and beautiful, holds no place in our American society today? Are we to look at it like we would an ancient manuscript, far removed from us, with no application or importance not only to our society today, but also to our personal lives as well? Are we to be content with willful ignorance simply because it is easier to go through life letting someone else tell us what is important, what something means, or whether it even has an meaning for us in our lives today?
It is my purpose, throughout several installments, to breakdown the beloved Declaration of Independence into sections and to put its contents in today's terms in order to open up the meaning to a whole audience of people, if not just ONE person, who did not understand it before. To unwrap the beauty, the treasure, that is contained within which makes this document so loved by people who actually understand it. But is that not the key to all of this? Sure, there will be those who will never care about history or what treasure(s) it holds for those who study it, but it is my experience that many people who do not appreciate or have a love for history in general is because they do not think it applicable today, and the reason they don't think it applicable today is because more times than not when they were made to learn it, they had a teacher who neither had an understanding nor a love for it themselves. And we all know that while knowledge can be imparted, a person can neither impart an understanding or a love for something that they don't have a love or an understanding of 1st. We cannot impart that which we do not have.
So it is my hope, my earnest desire, that I might shed a new light on an old document by bringing it into present-day society by making it easy to understand in words we would use today and in so doing, show the mass of people that it is not only useful and applicable today for you and me, but it is one of the great treasures given to us by God himself, to be protected, to be fought for, to be reminded of, and to be acted out when necessary.
Here's to those "light bulb moments", when understanding gives way to excitement, passion, and action!
