Memorial Day

Memorial Day

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

For some reason, Memorial Day always sneaks up on me. It’s not like other holidays where I’m counting down the days weeks and months in advance. Even on Memorial Day weekend, I feel like I should be prepped and ready to go to work on Monday.

Lately, Memorial Day has become a kind of National Cookout Day. While I do enjoy a good BBQ as much as the next guy, that’s not really the purpose. It’s about honoring all those who have laid down their lives in service to this country.

As I learned, the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day is that Memorial Day is for all the military members who have passed away either from being killed in the line of duty or who passed away after service. Veterans Day honors all military veterans living or dead.

It’s easy to take for granted the freedoms we have in the United States. It’s equally easy to forget that that freedom was bought with a price. Men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice for us to be able to vote, to participate in the governing process, to speak our minds freely, and to live our lives as we choose.

I remember something about sometimes what we take for granted can be taken from us. When we fail to appreciate the cost of our freedom, it becomes easy to discard or to let slip away through carelessness. But to lose our freedom would be dishonoring and disrespectful to those who died fighting for us.

I’m praying tomorrow that we can all remember those veterans at some point tomorrow. In the midst of all the partying and picnicking, may we all take a moment to pause and reflect and give thanks for those who died so that we could live in freedom.

Memorial Day Thoughts

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“Jesus comes into the prison of our fears and regrets and guilt and shame and sadness and says ‘I love you no matter what.’ You are free” (Tullian Tchividjian).

It’s nice to have a three-day weekend periodically. Having Monday off is just about always a plus, although that generally means that the following Tuesday will be like a regular Monday on steroids.

Still, that extra day to sleep in is nice.

Better still is remembering why we celebrate Memorial Day.

It’s not National BBQ Day. It’s not Take Your Boat to the Lake Day. While all these activities are fun and great, they aren’t the reason for this special day.

On this last Monday in May, we remember all those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy. We say to those who fell in combat, “What you did was not in vain.”

We also remember as believers that Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we could be free. Not just from hell, but from our own prison of shame, guilt, regret, and fear.

We’re saved not just for a heaven down the road but for a full and abundant life here and now. We get to know and experience all of God’s love here and now.

We’re saved because Jesus chose the way of suffering out of a great love for us. Not because He had to but because He’d rather go through hell for us so that we could know heaven with Him.

I hope your Memorial Day was memorable. I hope you spent quality time with family and friends. I even hope you got lots of good food.

Most of all, I hope you and I never forget that our freedoms, whether national or spiritual, are never free. They always come with a cost.

Let’s be thankful to all who paid that cost.

 

 

Thankful on Memorial Day

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I know it’s not national BBQ day. I know this holiday really isn’t about sitting out by the pool or grilling hot dogs. I do know that we have the liberty to do such things because of the bravery and sacrifice of so many– the real reason for Memorial Day.

I never served in the military. I’ve never been in combat. I can’t imagine what they’ve seen or had to do and what the ones who survive deal with on a daily basis.

All I can do is be thankful. I understand that the price for my freedom is never free, and the right to speak my mind as I please was bought and paid for in blood.

Thank you, solders, for your bravery. Thanks especially to those who made the ultimate sacrifice and never got to see again to the land they loved.

I’m thankful that God in Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for me so that I could live. So that I could be forgiven and redeemed.

I hope and pray none of us ever take our freedoms for granted ever. We are truly blessed to have them.

 

 

Remembering

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“And I ain’t no communist

And I ain’t no capitalist

And I ain’t no socialist

And I ain’t no imperialist

And I ain’t no democrat

And I ain’t no republican

I only know one party

And it is freedom
I am, I am, I am

I am a patriot

And I love my country

Because my county is all I know” (as recorded by Jackson Browne)
Today is the day we spend remembering those men and women who gave their lives defending the freedom and values we hold dear in this country.

It’s more than just another three-day weekend. It’s more than just another day to get together with family and friends and grill out on the patio.

This day, we remember those who didn’t get to come home– who will never get to come home– because they chose to fight for a way of life that many of us take for granted every day. That I take for granted every day.

I’m not a prophet. I don’t know what the future holds for this country. I hear a lot of the doomsday-ers saying that this country is headed to hell in a handbasket. I don’t know about that.

I do know that when we take our gifts for granted for too long. what we’re granted often gets taken.

So I’m expressing my thanks to all of you who have served in the military, are married to someone in the military, or are sons and daughters of those in the military. Thank you.

 

 

Memorial Day

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usa-memorial-day

As I have been constantly reminded, Monday is not National BBQ Day. Monday is not National Family Get-Together Day or National Day off from Work Day. It’s Memorial Day.

It’s a day in which we take time to remember those who made sacrifices so that we could enjoy the freedoms we enjoy as a nation. Men and women who served in the military, fought for us, and even made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.

As much as it may sound like uber-religious rhetoric, I truly am thankful for Jesus, who made the supreme sacrifice when He gave Himself up for me so that I might be free. As much as it pains me to say it, I take His gift for granted WAY too often and WAY too much.

So thank a soldier. Thank those who are serving currently and those who have served in the past.

Focus on the fact that you are still free to worship (or not worship) as you choose. Remember on that day that Jesus didn’t come to burden you with more regulations and rules to follow, but to set you fully and forever free.

Just some food for thought on Memorial Day Weekend.

 

Night Volleyball

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I participated in a game of volleyball at a Memorial Day cookout with some friends. Needless to say, none of us will probably be making the U.S. Olympic team in 2012 or anytime soon.

From a volleyball purist standpoint, we played the game all wrong. We didn’t set the ball up or even hit it correctly. More times than not, the ball went in the opposite direction of the net or under the net or even into the net.

Whoever invented volleyball was probably rolling over in his grave. Or else he died just so he could be buried and roll over in his grave. It wasn’t pretty.

But it was fun.

We gave each player a do-over on messed-up serves. We complimented each other on near-misses and flat-out whiffs. When the automatic lights went out, one of us would go do our best version of the Riverdance to get the lights back on.

By the time we were done playing, the game was more of a comedy than a competition. But we had fun and laughed at ourselves and with each other.

It was grace in action. Too bad we as believers aren’t that way all the time.

For the moments when I open up my mouth and say something stupid, I need grace.

For the moments when you send the text before you think it through and wish for the next 24 hours you could take it back, you need grace.

For all the times when we break our promises and fail to be light and salt and witnesses of the great God who saved us, we all need grace.

For all the times we screw up royally again after promising God and the world we wouldn’t, we all need grace. For daily falling short of all God meant for us to be to ourselves and each other and to Him, we all need grace. Desparately.

Grace isn’t just undeserved favor. That falls short of what grace is. Grace is undeserved favor in the face of deserved wrath. That’s something I learned recently and something I’m still thinking about.

Grace means that you’re not alone and neither am I. Grace means we walk together, we fall together, and we get back up together. We laugh together, we cry together, we fail together, and we overcome together.

And it took a game of night volleyball to remind me of all that.