by Chad Connelly | Guest Writer

I was walking off a stage after finishing a talk to about 600 enthusiastic business owners when it all started. A very excited lady rushed up to me, and exclaimed, “You need to write a book!” I smiled and nodded politely and my brain was protesting loud enough to hear, “Are you kidding me? Don’t you know that I’m a kid from a town of 400, counting the animals? That we just got our first traffic light and sometimes there are cars there?”

I guess she either heard my brain waves or she judged my look of disbelief because she responded without hesitation, “No, you can make a difference.” I was floored. My wife, Michelle, and I met at Clemson University at the beginning of my second senior year. She was a freshman and a 4.0 student, and I was involved in everything I could squeeze in while working on my civil engineering degree. That very phrase was the cornerstone of our relationship, and has been the motto of our 15-year marriage: “Dear Lord, we just want to make a difference.”

Providentially as well, I had the good fortune to meet and get to know the nationally known motivational and Christian speaker, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. Charlie’s little book, Life is Tremendous, has sold several million copies and is in print all over the world. Charlie agreed to print my book for me and suggested that I keep it simple, even under 100 pages if it was to be read by lots of people.

I continued on a year-long effort to polish my talk by speaking at churches, civic groups, and other organizations, and by researching the topic that I was so passionate about: America’s Christian founding. I found lots of sources, even read the original words of the Founders themselves, and became convinced of two things: first, that our Christian heritage was being rewritten, covered up, and lied about; and second, that the truth was out there, it was just mostly in books that were so thick that the average American would never read to discover the truth. As we look around our country’s landscape today, it is evident that most Americans don’t have the faintest idea about our Christian founding or the providential nature of America.

In my original talk that prompted that lady to inspire me, I had included several quotes of the Founding Fathers that many people said they had never heard or known about.

For instance, did you know that George Washington said in his Farewell Address that, “Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” Yes, our first president, in his last public statement, thought that he should let future generations know that religion and morality were the support system that led to success in our nation.

The other tidbit I discovered was that that very quote was in every U.S. history textbook up until the mid-1960s, and it’s hardly found in any of our textbooks today.

I included quotes from a variety of Founders, did a short discussion of the whole “separation of church and state” issue that even I could understand, and revealed the origin of the American experiment, that rights come from God. That talk has evolved into my book, Freedom Tide. The title came from a Reagan quote, “I have often said that the tide of the future is a freedom tide….” You see, I believe that the tide is turning. With the work of ministries like American Family Association, Focus on the Family and many others, Americans are waking up to the truth. America is special, and if she is special, she is also providential, not accidental. Why else would our country now be the longest-standing constitutional republic in history? Why would 19 Mexicans be willing to die in a hot truck or 200 Haitians run their boat aground in the Florida Keys, just to get to this place called America? God had, and still has, His hand on our country, and now is the time for all committed patriots who love America to stand up and take a stand for truth.

“Anyone can make a difference, right where you are!” That is the message of Freedom Tide, and if we as Christians don’t get involved and make a difference, there are a lot of failed countries we can look at to see where we are headed.