Don't Stop Believing
Journey… the archetypal rock bank of the 1980s. I recently downloaded some Journey tunes to my iPod and climbed aboard an elliptical for some sweat equity. Listening to Steve Perry belt out, “Don’t Stop Believin’”, with his madcap catchy lyrics about small town girls, city boys, midnight trains, streetlights, and people who lived just to find emotion, I was reminded of what it takes to keep our heads up, our eyes forward, and our feet moving in the face of great disappointment.
When your heart is broken… Don’t Stop Believin’
When you get the wind knocked out of you… Don’t Stop Believin’
When you are in a situation that seems hopeless… Don’t Stop Believin’
When your world is falling apart and you find yourself lost and alone… Don’t Stop Believin’
and
When Governor Sarah Palin, the most qualified conservative public servant to come along in three decades, decides not to run for president in 2012… Don’t Stop Believin’
Remember when we were kids and we sang that song about God having the whole world in His hands? When we grew up, instead of leaving “our world” in His hands, we thought that now we could handle anything life threw at us on our own, thank you very much. But in our own strength, we can’t do anything. Neither can Gov. Palin. She has prayerfully placed “her world” squarely in her Creator’s hands letting Him guide her compass.
Gov. Palin wants us to keep moving forward with her and “don’t stop believin’” that America’s best days are ahead. We are an exceptional nation. Everything will be all right. Just you wait and see!
Our country is in a dark time. We’ve been in darker. We need to see the bigger picture.
In the beginning, independence from the most powerful Western nation (Britain) on earth was a long shot at best. But those patriots didn’t give up. Even in the bloody snows of Valley Forge they found strength to keep fighting. And they won.
What darker time could be imagined than the Civil War when brother fought against brother and the very fabric of the republic was being ripped apart? Then the great leader who had struggled to keep the nation together was murdered. But we’re still here.
The Great Depression, two world wars, we could go on. But America has an indefinable quality that is found nowhere else. We will make it. Those common folks that have cheered Sarah Palin on are still around and they still have the same fighting spirit that is in her and attracted them to her potential candidacy in the first place.
Don’t stop believing. Believe in that ideal called “America.” Believe in something bigger than yourself.
It’s for sure that Sarah Palin does.
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The Battle and Armour of Governor Sarah Palin
I challenge you to find someone who has received more vile and vicious hate hurled at them than Governor Sarah Palin. It seems adversity comes her way no matter what she says or does, as in the latest media-generated hysteria over her timely and most appropriate video response to the terrible tragedy in Tucson on January 8th leaving many wounded or dead.
Liberals are up in arms over Governor Palin’s use of the term “blood libel” to describe the left-wing and lamestream media elite attacks on conservatives following the horrific events wielded from one lone loon with a gun; however, attorney and Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz agreed that the former vice presidential candidate used the term correctly saying:
“There is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic in Sarah Palin using the term to characterize what she reasonably believes are false accusations that her words or images may have caused a mentally disturbed individual to kill and maim.”
“Falsely accusing someone of shedding blood is the definition of a blood libel,” said a spokesperson for Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin in an interview with the Daily Caller. “Sarah Palin got it right.”
It is time to wake up, America. The Tucson tragedy was not the fault of Governor Palin or the Tea Party.
We must understand that such hatred driving one to commit an act of extreme violence begins silently within the mind and is incubated over time. As the hatred is mentally rehearsed, it grows to such proportions that it soon affects the person’s attitude and perception toward an individual or a group of individuals. As the hatred festers, it moves into the realm of influencing the person’s words and actions, often resulting in a violent rampage.
Point in case? Jared Loughner, the disturbed man who aimed a gun and pulled the trigger wrecking havoc and taking lives during an otherwise peaceful gathering of American patriots in Tucson on a sunny Saturday morning.
However, we can expect the left and the media elite to forever point an accusing finger at Governor Palin no matter the circumstance or situation.
Why?
Reverend Franklin Graham founder of Samaritan's Purse said it best: “She [Governor Palin] is a kind and compassionate God-fearing woman who believes with all her heart that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Rev. Franklin Graham and Gov. Sarah Palin in Wasilla, Alaska leading a group in prayer before a Samaritan's Purse mission to distribute boxes of food to remote Alaskan villages in February 2009
Gov. Palin on a mission of mercy in Haiti with Samaritan's Purse in December 2010
The Bible says in I John 3:13 to, “Marvel not if the world hate you,” and “… if you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of this world, the world hates you.” (see John 15:19-21). The “world” in this context refers to non-Christian believers.
Here's the bottom line.
Because Governor Palin is a woman of prayer and strong faith, adversity will always be aimed at her. But as her track record has proven time and time again, she will never allow it to move her or shake her, nor will she allow it to defeat her or keep her from her God-ordained destiny.
So Governor Palin, be encouraged and never back down! Don’t let anyone say you can’t. You can! The thing God created you to do, you will do. And you will rock and shake the world. Whatever God speaks to your heart, step out and walk on water like Peter[1], and watch God be God.
"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand." (Ephesians 6:13)
As for me and my house, we stand with Sarah.
[1] Bible verse: Matthew 14:22-33
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Palin on Reagan: He was "America's Lifeguard"
by Sarah Palin as published in USA Today, January 24, 2011
"We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism."
I had the privilege of coming of age during the era of Ronald Reagan. I like to think of him as America's lifeguard. As a teenager, Ronald Reagan saved 77 lives as a lifeguard on the Rock River, which ran through his hometown of Dixon, Ill. The day he was inaugurated in 1981, a local radio announcer famously declared, "The Rock River flows for you tonight, Mr. President."
The image of the lifeguard seems to represent what Reagan was to America and to the freedom-loving people of the world. He lifted our country up at a time when we were in the depths of economic, cultural and spiritual malaise. We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism.
Reagan as lifeguard on Rock River in 1926
Reagan showed us that despite a deep recession, there could still be morning in America. He could speak to the economic troubles facing ordinary Americans because he understood what it was like to live through a Great Depression where families scraped to get by. And yet, he saw us recover from our Great Depression, and under his leadership we experienced the greatest peacetime economic boom in our history. He could speak to our fears that our years as a superpower were over, because he understood what it was like to see America at war and really fear that we might lose. And yet, he saw us win two world wars, and under his leadership we won the Cold War without firing a single shot. Reagan's belief in American greatness was rooted in historic fact, not blind optimism. He was a sunny optimist because he knew that our best days are yet to come.
Reagan at Brandenburg Gate, West Germany, 1987
Today, when we hear the worry in the voices of Americans wondering where the jobs will be for our children and grandchildren and wondering if the world will be safe and prosperous in the years to come, we should remember Reagan's faith in our inherent heroism and greatness. When we see people around the globe looking to the White House for leadership, we should remember Reagan's steel spine. He understood America's purpose in this world and what we need to do to secure liberty. As Margaret Thatcher said of him, "He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism." He sought those things and he succeeded.
This year, as we celebrate the centennial of Reagan's birth, let's remember the lifeguard from the Rock River who rescued us with his optimism and common sense. We need more lifeguards like him.
-Sarah Palin
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Author's Note:
Prayer is our spiritual oxygen, and just as oxygen is vital to natural life, so is prayer vital to spiritual life. We need to pray regularly and continually for Governor Sarah Palin and her family as she "lifeguards" to protect our country's future. Her message of American exceptionalism breathes new life --- oxygen --- into our belief that we are the greatest nation on earth. God bless you, Governor Palin.
Governor Palin is "America's Oxygen"
"Pray at all times --- on every occasion, in every season-- in the Spirit with all manner of prayer and entreaty." - Ephesians 6:18
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