Freedom

I love July 4th. I am one of those people who gets teary eyed when I sing the national anthem (which I will need to work on if I ever want to sing it at a baseball game!). I guess it's because I used to work for the Navy in San Diego. I worked for the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department at Naval Station, San Diego. It was a great job, but it made me acutely aware that these guys that are going off to war are babies. Seriously, an eighteen year old can go off to war? It is just hard for me to believe that a person, especially a boy, can make life or death decisions at such a young age.

I also can't help but remember the book, All's Quiet on the Western Front. If you haven't read the book, read it, it's a classic for a reason, and it made me realize that a soldier is killing another person, not an idea or an army, but a person, just like themselves. Don't get me wrong, I am not against war. I do believe that war is the necessary answer sometimes because we, as humans, are complete idiots for the most part and sometimes that is the only way to get through to us. In the Old Testament, there are many examples of God directing His people to go to war; and I certainly don't believe that America or Americans should sit idly by while dictators oppress their people or while armies commit genocide in the name of hatred. My heart aches for the children in Dar fur and I thank God that He chose for me to be born in America.

I think it's important to remember that our country's freedom and opportunities were built on the back of eighteen and nineteen year old children, and many of those children died for this cause. We owe it to them to make the most of our lives and opportunities that we have in this country. We owe it to them to stand up for what we believe in and to participate in the system to make this country even better. We complain about things getting so bad in America and how we are no longer a Godly nation, but we don't really do anything else but complain.

I hear people say all the time that freedom isn't free, but honestly, for me it really was free. I didn't go and fight for it; I am not sitting at home praying that my son, brother, daddy or husband will come home safely from the war. And because for most of us it is free, it causes us to be complacent and ungrateful for our freedom. We don't value the things that are free or easy to us. I don't want to raise children that don't truly understand what it means to be free. I don't want to shield my girls from the horrors of Dar fur or what is happening in Iraq. I want them to be grateful to God and to those who died for our freedom.

As a Christian, I am so grateful to Jesus for dieing for my sins and raising again from the dead in order to give me freedom from my sin and eternal separation. Everyday of my life I thank God for that freedom. Shouldn't I also be grateful for the freedom I experience here on earth in America? Shouldn't I thank God that He allowed men and women to sacrifice their lives so that I might live in this blessed place?

Luke 12:48 says, "Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given."

I have been given so much: Freedom for eternity and freedom on earth. Both of which required the payment of death and neither of which did I pay myself.

Lord, thank you for dieing for my sins and raising again from the dead so I can spend eternity with You in heaven. And thank you for America and for those who died for my earthly freedom. I do not know why you chose for me to live here, in this time and place, but I ask that I fulfill Your plan for my life so I may honor You and those who made my life in a free country possible.