What does freedom mean to you? Is it the ability to worship as your heart dictates? Then remember the Founding Fathers who put their lives, homes, families, and their own liberty on the line so you could read the Bible for yourself and see what's in it and so their would be no "Church Of The United States" with all the abuses of The Church Of England. Is it to express your opinion on what your government is doing? Then be sure to remember those who fell on the frozen battlefields of Europe during World War Two. Is it to have a say, through those we elect, about the policies of our government? Please think of all those who did time in the hellish Prisoner of War camps run by the Viet Cong. Is freedom your right to be here today in the church* you are sitting in right now as you read this? There is nothing cheap about this right. It was purchased through the honor and blood of heroes. That newspaper you read each morning? Remember the "Frozen Chosin" incident during the Korean War when our best and brightest fought in conditions so cold some lost fingers and toes and suffered permanent damage to hands and feet, if they were lucky enough not to die from the battle or the weather. Voted lately? Remember all those who were cut to ribbons as they charged up the hill to swarm the Nazi machine gun nests on the beach at Normandy on D-Day.
Those who are willing to stand for us in places we can't, or wouldn't want to go to, are honorable. Their sense of being part of something bigger and more important than themselves is honorable. The commitment of these honorable men and women, to put their lives on the line for the country they believe in and love, shows an almost "old fashioned" sense of honor and duty that has all but diapered in our country. Every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, or Coasty represents every one of us, wherever they may be. They "stand in the gap" for us, they take fire for us, they die for US! Next time you hear of our troops dying in Afghanistan or Iraq, remember that they died for YOU! They showed great honor by laying down their life for you. Through the blood they spilled on some violent, hellish, foreign battlefield., they have bought a little more time for this 230 year experiment we call democracy. Thank a Vet today. Some are sitting in this church this morning. The debt we owe them can never be repaid.
Copyright 2007 Timothy E. Davis