Memorial Day Thoughts

For, brothers and sisters, you have been called and delivered into liberty; only do not use liberty to selfishly gratify the flesh, but by love serve one another. Galations 5:13


The movie "Saving Private Ryan" brought some of the horrific realities of warfare into focus. War historian Steven Ambrose said that the only thing missing from the movie was the smell of blood and graphite. I think the numbing, sickening fear of warfare--men going for days with feces and urine in their pants because they can't take time to clean themselves--also  cannot be cinematically depicted in its full horror. But we should try to grasp it because we have so much of what we have because our ancestors and friends were and are willing to enter into it. My Uncle Dwight walked ashore on Omaha beach on D-Day. I asked him what he saw. "A lot of dead soldiers" he replied somberly. He almost drowned because the Higgins Boat captains were so anxious to pull away from the German gun fire coming from the cliffs that they barely got the men close enough to shore. He also said he saw a church burning on the hill. How metaphoric!
My son entered the military [Army] more than twenty years ago and is still in the service. When he entered, knowing the instability of world affairs, we both had to face the possibility of him being in a combat zone. A question I had to ask myself is "Is this nation worth the life of my son?" I think every parent sending a son or daughter into combat asks that question. I struggled with it. I love America--what she has been, her founding principles, government for and by the people, freedom endowed by our Creator, built-in system of checks and balances to prevent corruptive power, freedom of religion, press, bearing of arms, peaceful assembly, etc. I believe, along with the Founding Fathers that this form of government was divinely inspired through the Christian faith.
But I have seen a drift away from the Christian Faith in my sixty-six years on this earth. And I have seen this nation evolve [or devolve] from [for example] the moral sensitivity that would preclude showing Elvis Presley from the waste down when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show [I saw it], to the likes of Victoria Secret commercials and flaunting sexuality to the fullest extent possible. I have seen and continue to see rampant violence and entitlement to rights to have sex "any way I want it", and you'd better approve of it! I've seen partying taken to the level of the absurd. I've seen "ridiculousness" celebrated, I've seen people go to astounding lengths of absurdity simply to gain attention and notoriety, I've seen entertainment refined to the point that you can be entertained twenty-four seven; and I've seen children idolizing those who entertain, even if they provide no other service to humanity than to occupy the brains of millions of people for no other gain than to be entertained. And I've seen us trying to export this tripe to other nations, some of whom are balking and putting on the brakes of that importation--and I can see why!
Here's the upshot: I wonder how long we will maintain a volunteer army of good men and women who are saying "I'll die for this nation" when they and their parents and spouses are surveying the horizon of what they say they will die for. "I'll die so you can have more and better sex. I'll die so you can demand better service at your restaurants. I'll die so you can figure out ways to make more money in the stock market. I'll die so you can complain about how miserable this nation is. I'll die so you can support politicians who will vote in ways that benefit you but not the common man. I'll die so you can march in the streets preaching hatred, stirring up strife, burning and looting. I'll die so you can get fat on fast food and lay around in your parents' home making excuses for not being able to work. I'll die so you can have sex with girls who don't have a clue what love is, get them pregnant then move on to the next girlfriend when they get a little moody or when you have to get up in the night to change a diaper. I'll die so you can ignore every noble effort to do some good in the world while you focus exclusively on your entertainment, vacations and retirement. I'll die so you can continue your meaningless, selfish, depressed existence.
Or maybe....maybe....I won't. Maybe I'll let those dark forces that always lurk at the fringes of freedom come in like a beast and wreak some havoc in your entitled, stingy little world. Maybe that will wake you up.
Then I realized, that's not a son or daughter contemplating military service speaking; that's the God of creation; the God of Jesus Christ; the One Who's voice has faded into the noise and chaos of our prosperity.
Oh Lord, please speak louder! Some of us are still listening.