Memorial Day

     Happy Memorial Day!  What a debt we owe to those who have gone before us to secure our freedom.  Lord, forgive us for how often we take for granted those hard-won freedoms.   John Adams once declared, "Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom.  I hope you will make good use of it."  O Lord, keep us grateful and make us worthy!
     I often think back to my daddy who served as the gunnery officer on a destroyer for four years during World War II.  He saw action at about every major naval battle and saw death and destruction on a level we cannot begin to imagine.  Daddy earned a bronze star for his bravery, yet, when he died, we found that illustrious medal hidden in the top of his sock drawer.  My brother explained at his funeral that Daddy had it there so that everyday when he opened his drawer to get his socks, he was reminded of all the brave servicemen and dear friends who lost their lives in the war.  These innumerable souls who gave their best, their all, for their nation and for our freedom never had the opportunity to live out their lives and fulfill their hopes and dreams.  So everyday Daddy surely felt that he needed to live that day to the best of his ability, to make a difference in this world, and to thereby honor the sacred memory of those who gave their lives so that we might live.
     Right at this very moment our nation has brave men and women all over the world serving and fighting to safeguard our freedom.  They face hardships, sacrifices, discomfort, dangers, and death.  And here we sit in air conditioned comfort, contemplating what the traffic might be like at the beach or the weather might be like in the mountains or what we might cook on the grill for a Memorial Day cookout or how we will enjoy our day off on monday.  Yet the smallest inconveniences irritate us and the simplest everyday (but o so wonderful) blessings showered upon us pass by utterly unnoticed.  Shame on us.  Shame on our ingratitude and indifference and inaction.
     As John Adams exhorted us so many years ago, might we consider afresh the exorbitant price paid by earlier generations and by those in harm's way today... and might we be filled with gratitude.  How I pray that we will prove worthy of those sacrifices by our efforts to make this nation greater and stronger and freer and nobler for the generations following us.  Help us to be thankful and faithful, Father.
     To our great God be the glory forever.