What do you love most about our country?

This is the question I posed this week to our men’s group that meets for coffee on Tuesday mornings. I was inspired to ask the question not only because of our nation’s celebration this weekend of the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but also by the gushing of our global visitors here for the World Cup soccer tournament over the glories of our Buc-ee’s and Waffle Houses!

We shared various responses to this question—our nation’s inclusivity, our can-do spirit, our air-conditioning! I love all these things! But I continue to reflect on this question. One of the things I love most about this country is I believe we have a compelling story to tell.

How to properly tell the story of this country, however, has become something of a controversial question that’s played out in our nation’s schools, college campuses, and political campaigns in recent years.

In a recent article by Yoni Appelbaum in The Atlantic, three competing versions of the American story were presented. One version that has emerged in recent decades emphasizes the darker elements of our nation’s history, claiming that our country was founded upon racism, settler-colonialism, and genocide. This version suggests that there are very few redeemable qualities about our history.

A second version focuses on the brighter side of our history, emphasizing such timeless ideals as freedom, equality, and opportunity that have formed and shaped us as a nation. The darker elements of our history, like the institution of slavery, are somewhat glossed over lest we become demoralized and disenchanted.

But a third version of our story holds these two together in tension and suggests that our country is “a work in progress.” In this view, the American story is “an ongoing struggle between our best impulses and our worst.” It’s both honest about how our country has fallen short of our ideals, but also hopeful that we can still move toward them together.

This view resonates with the story I tell about myself. I am “a work in progress” as well! There are many ways in which I have sinned and fallen short of the glory to which God calls us—and I still do—but I also believe I am, in the words of our Methodist founder John Wesley, “going on to perfection.” By no means have I reached perfection, but by God’s grace I hope to be on the path toward it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Just so, by no means has our nation arrived at perfection. I think we can all agree we have a ways yet to go. But in their preamble to our constitution, the founders believed they were making their way forward toward forming “a more perfect Union.” It seems they saw the American experiment itself as going on to perfection.

So as we look back and celebrate 250 years of our nation’s independence, may we also look forward and anticipate continuing to move together toward “a more perfect union” of our highest hopes and ideals. And may the God of all bless us and guide us on this journey.