November 11, 2013

Veteran’s Day

Serving our country in the military is a badge of honor and we are grateful to all those who make that sacrifice and commitment. Recently there have been a couple of awkward Veteran’s stories making headlines in my community. Speaking as a Veteran myself, I’m somewhat embarrassed that these fellow vets would use their prior service as a weapon to fight against the rules of establishment. If you were to take away the military status from their argument, no one would listen to their entitlement agenda. I thought of the incident in the temple courts when Jesus, in righteous anger, turned over the tables of the money changers. No doubt the Lord also felt disappointment and embarrassment that these men would put their own occupations above temple worship. Jesus said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer’, but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’” (Matt 21:13 NIV)

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----Actually, the Veterans made their sacrifice and commitment for a paycheck, the same as do the rest of the working Americans. Yes, their field of endeavor involves the risk of life for the protection of our freedom. And although that is a badge of honor, it is not outstanding because of the risk of life involved. Working Americans would deserve just as outstanding an honor had we held to our responsibilities, too.
-----Of course I don’t risk my life preparing tax returns all day. Nor does my friend risk his flipping burgers. The overwhelming majority of us have jobs of little physical risk. But why does physical risk evoke the greatest honor when spiritual death is the greatest risk?
-----Don’t mistake me as saying preacher’s bear the greatest honor, although Paul alluded to such an idea. I’m speaking of bearing a risk far more mundane. I’m speaking of walking into the face of the dragon with the truth. Yes, preachers do that. And preachers plant or harvest souls from eternal death into eternal life. Such is outstandingly honorable. But preachers work in the same fields as do we all. We are all embedded in the same cultural environs.
-----Cultures are made of reflecting/reacting hearts and minds. Cultures are the way we rub one another. They are also subject to abuse and can be stolen just like your silverware and tools. I have spent most of my life with jaw dropped at the astonishing sight of year after year after decade after decade of contamination and deterioration creeping into our culture because good people were too frightened to step forward and call stupid “stupid” and liars “liars”. Oh for sure we’ve had courage amongst the choir. But we wouldn’t face the audience and do it for fear of the conductor, whose only concern is the way the choir sounds to the audience. Consequently, our culture is almost completely stolen.
-----So, the carefully orchestrated notes the public gets to hear lack the tunes of fundamental truth. Some tunes are so undeniably obvious that even the audience holds their truth, like the child in the womb at any developmental stage is a marvelous thing, even called “a miracle.” But the tune carrying that miracle of life into legal protection is banished by the conductor. So also the tune which interrelates a beyond-the-mere-bungling of our freedoms by a President of an obviously dual-citizen origin to his proven duplicity. Truth is a process of valid logic acting upon certain facts to draw true conclusions, then react to them behaviorally. Abandoning truth because its complexity is too risky makes the Devil smile, spoils multitudes of eternal destinies, and strips the badge of honor from the American chest.

Love you all,
Steve Corey