Many of us celebrate Memorial Day with a start-of-summer barbecue, camping trip, or party with friends. This Monday, May 30, the Holt’s are hosting our pastors and their families at our home. But I write this blog to remind us that no matter your plans, it’s important to remember the true meaning of the holiday. Really, it’s a day dedicated to honoring the fallen soldiers that have fought to protect our freedom.
Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” Our freedom is not passed through our bloodstream, but it has been passed to us through bloodshed.
From the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan, men and women have risked and given their lives for our freedom. In a time where patriotism and love for country is criticized and maligned from the mainstream media to college campuses, the Holt family and our church, The Road @ Chapel Hills, remember and honor our fallen. We still love our nation.
Is America Great?
America has a lot of faults. We are reminded daily by our leaders and media that we are a nation that is racist, greedy, and ruled by white supremacists. We are hammered on TV, on the internet, and through blogs, that we are a nation of hate speech, bigotry, and uneducated religious nuts.
But I still believe we live in a great nation. America is great because we are still a nation that values freedom—freedom to worship the way we want; freedom to speak our mind; freedom to choose the school we want our children to attend; freedom to work at a job we desire.
America is great because most of us still believe in a God of freedom. It may not be the belief of most of our leaders, media, or the billionaires who rule Big Pharma, Big Gov, and Big Corp. But such faith is still in our nation. Such faith is in the common person who gets up each morning, clocks in at a job, makes meals for their kids, and attends a local church. America is great because of the common man who still loves God, wears the uniform, and fights and dies for our freedom.
Franklin Roosevelt once said, “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”
The soldiers who died to give us this freedom are the great ones. They are rarely acknowledged. But they are the great crowd of witnesses that gave up their youth, their future, and their freedom to give each of us the freedom to celebrate this special day. Don’t forget them.
Thankful for the fallen,
Pastor Steve
