Than to Lay Down One’s Life

     As we celebrate another Memorial Day, I could speak of how it all began with Americans decorating the headstones of their soldiers killed during the Civil War, how the symbolic Red Poppy flower came from a poem written on the worst day of WWI, or how we must never forget the Service Members that went off to defend their country and never came home.  Absolutely, Memorial Day is for the fallen heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. This is not a day to recognize the Veterans or even those who are currently serving our nation today. But what drives a person to risk their life for people they have never met?

     In John 15, Jesus is speaking to His Disciples at the last supper about love for one another as Jesus has loved them.  In verse 13, Jesus tells them “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  Isn’t that what Memorial Day is really all about?  Remembering and honoring those individuals who laid down their lives for their family and friends and demonstrating their selfless acts of the “greatest love.”  But are we willing to lay down our lives to save our friends today? Are we willing to tell them what we believe and where our faith lies? Do we trust the Lord when He said in Luke 21:15 “I will give you a mouth and wisdom..” to testify to lost and dying?

     “Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future” - Fulton Oursler.

     In Al Quam, I can remember every morning watching the young Soldiers head out on patrol with their weapons in hand and ready for battle. I got to know a few of them through Church once a week, but mostly the Soldiers and Contractors didn’t intermingle. I remember on several occasions, my team was called to the “junk-yard” to retrieve some sensitive equipment from vehicles destroyed by a buried Improvised Explosive Device (IED).  In Iraq, the main military vehicle was the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) and that vehicle was not designed to have an explosion underneath the vehicle. Due to its flat underbelly, the force would lift the HMMWV several feet in the air and have it land on its roof. The occupants would receive the full force of the blast and their bodies would suffer tremendous external/internal trauma. The sensitive equipment would be caked in the Soldier’s blood, a dark crimson color. That blood belongs to the very same young Soldiers who left out that morning, never realizing that would be their final day on Earth. I regret not getting to know them a little better.

     Remembering the “Fallen Brothers” I have known in my life, I can’t remember ever discussing their salvation or if they understood how they must stand before GOD and be held accountable for their sins. I would like to believe that I demonstrated my Christian values and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ before them, but I cannot say that I know they are in Heaven today.

     When you have served in the military, there is a kinship called the “brotherhood” that bonds men and women all over this nation, even years after they have gotten out of the service. “Brotherly love” is a love that has no boundaries, a love that never has to ask for help, a love that is always there and a love that never forgets. But when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you enter a greater brotherhood that is ordained by GOD. The Christian Brotherhood should be no less; we should be there for each other, to encourage, to support, and to love.

     As someone who has served this nation, I can tell you there is no greater hero than a Soldier, Sailor, Marine or Airmen that has been “Killed in Action” and there is no greater sorrow than the memory of those “Missing in Action”. When someone says, “never leave a man behind,”  they mean no one should be left behind to die alone or be captured by the enemy.

     At the first of 2020, our class discussed the amount of young adults that attended Shady Brook in their childhood and teenage years yet have left out into the world. We listed out roughly 40 names on an easel and displayed in our classroom with a title of “Missing in Action.”  We have prayed for those names, that the Lord may watch over them and if they are not in a Christian community, that we may be able to connect and extend the “brotherhood” that has been built within our class.

     In honoring  Joshua Sherman in our class name, we should strive to carry on what he stood for on this earth. Joshua was a listener, willing to be there for the good times and the bad.  Joshua was a servant, if there was someone in need or if someone asked for help, he would be there anytime. Josh was a friend, who demonstrated his love for you with his big goofy smile and his genuine care for your concerns and needs.  Josh truly demonstrated Christian brotherhood.

     On this Memorial Day, I am asking you to reach out to the Shady Brook Young Adults who are “missing in action” and invite them to join us in our virtual “brotherhood.”  I am asking you to embody what Josh stood for and “lay down your lives” by extended the hand of Christ. If we learn each MIA has found a church family and is growing in Christ, than we can breathe a sigh of relief that we will be together again someday, but if we learn our MIA is lost to this world than we must find them on the battlefield and bring them home.

     Jesus Christ demonstrated the “ultimate sacrifice” when He laid down His life for Us all. Why can’t we tell others on this Memorial Day of the “Greatest Love” from the “Greatest Man”?