Blessed Dreamers and Their Dreams

I have not felt quite myself for about a month now. My sin nature has reared its head in numerous ugly ways. But this is the post I ought to have written right after the PHC graduation, when I first thought of it. It is about why I still appreciate Dr. Farris so much, despite the faults that many have been illuminating lately, and why I love PHC.

The United States of America are a blessed dream - one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This "America" is an ideal that does not exist. But it is not "just" an ideal. It is a group of sinful people unified for better or worse under that banner of hope. I love "America," the form of a free country. I would sacrifice for that ideal, despite its current imperfect incarnation.

The more I learn of American history, the more I see how imperfections were imbedded in it from the start. The movie The Patriot shows this well by the black man who fights for freedom - his country's and his own. At one point another character tells him something like, "We're forming a new country with a new vision. Perhaps we'll be able to change some other things as well." He means slavery. But as we know, our country divided in a bloody Civil War over that very issue in the 1860s. And many other things haven't gone as planned. Nevertheless, the original blessed dream is sound, and those of us who know it still struggle for it. America has never achieved it yet, but it would be nowhere without it.

PHC is also a blessed dream. It is an attempt to find the perfect balance between Pensacola and Harvard. This is our motto: "For Christ and for liberty." Respectively, if you will, special and general revelation. For us, our little motto is still alive. It means something.

We have now had our first civil war, of sorts. Was the South justified in seceding from the Union because the North was violating its rights? Maybe the North wanted to protect the Union from the perceived threat of slavery, which would cause ideological damage. Then again, perhaps a better way to preserve the Union would have been to let the perceived threat work its way out over time, since Americans were all supposed to be brothers. Who knows, really? The Civil War happened, and it can never be undone. So it is with PHC. All we can do is right ourselves and head doggedly forward again.

I love PHC for its blessed dream and for its audacity. I think it is always the way of things in this fallen world that significant change makes an ideal seem farther away than ever before. On the other hand, maybe the bright light of a precious new thought makes the goal seem closer at the start than it really is. At any rate, like America, we truck along. I would rather live in this country than anywhere else. I would rather attend PHC for undergraduate study than anywhere else.

I appreciate Dr. Farris because he saw the dream and has attempted to communicate it to so many others. I respect him for his vision. One way or another, I suspect I will be trying to help institute it for life. He was the right man for the right time; nobody else could have pulled it all together. Yes, he is a flawed human being. But you know what? I suspect that my own sin areas are very similar to his. No matter what happens, I will never forget what he has done for so many people.

This is why I hope for PHC and for America both. Their dreams are sound, even if the reality is not. Despite a post I made a few days ago, the thought of being at PHC this next year excites me. A lot is going to happen. I expect to learn, change, and grow along with the college. God help me and it. We both need it.  ¶ 11:30 AM