Acts 22:27-28 (NIV®)
The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes, I am,” he answered. Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.
Today we remember those who paid the price. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to. They believed freedom was worth all they had and they served and defended our country with all they had and all they were. Their dedication and determination has preserved the life and freedom dreamt of by our founding fathers, who loved freedom and believed God would bless their endeavors. I believe the blessings we enjoy today are the result of their faith, and without those who have fought since our founding, our gains would already be lost. Without them, those of us “born free” would not know freedom or liberty. Those who paid the price of their lives deserve honor, respect, and admiration. They died that we might have and experience the freedom intended us by God. Aside from our salvation, is there anything worth more?
Our founding fathers put everything on the line for our country to be born. Since then, through many years, men and women have given their all to see it continue. Today, we see the skillful intent to destroy what we have enjoyed, to remove basic freedoms from our lives, to control and contain, to prevent and prohibit. How will we respond? How will the people twenty, fifty, or one hundred years from today look back on us? Are we willing to speak up? Are we willing to do the work? Are we willing to pay the price? How will future generations remember us?
As the church, it seems we have carefully separated our spiritual freedom from our physical freedom. Have we become so spiritually minded that we are of no earthly good? Is there nothing worth our sacrifice outside of our faith? Do we not see the importance of converging our faith into the world around us? Do we not see the role physical freedom plays in spiritual freedom? Our physical world matters and can only be made right through the living out of our faith in practical and sometimes heroic ways.
So I ask again, in the light of all who have fallen and those we honor this day, how will we be remembered? Will future generations look back on us with admiration and respect or will they look back and wonder what we were thinking? I hope and pray we will be heroic, faithful, determined and willing participants in a return to the Godly heritage of this nation. May those who come after us be just as grateful for our stand, our action, and potentially our sacrifice, as we are of those who have gone before us, those we remember this Memorial Day. God Bless.
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