USA Today featured an article titled, “Medals carry great weight, as do men who wear them” November 10th, just this past Friday. (Link to the USA Today article)
And, the sub title reads, “27 servicemen have received top decorations for valor in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their stories testify to the brutality of war and the humanity behind heroism.”
These are our new generation’s combat heroes in their 20’s to 40’s. The article captures the split second moments before they acted bravely. The article reads, “This new generation of decorated troops talks of acting without thinking, except for moments of clarity when death seemed inevitable.” Bill Carr, a deputy undersecretary of Defense said, “We’re a nation that loves the struggle of men and women being better, being bigger tham themsevels, being selfless and talking risks on behalf of one another.”
Sgt. Maj. Bradley Kasal, 40 years old, he was shot seven times during close-quarter combat in Fallujah, Irag, in 2004. While wounded himself, he was trying to strip the gear off the fallen Marine next to him, Alex Nicoll, to locate a wound. That’s when a grenade landed close by. He said, “I looked, and there was a grenade sitting right there… I pushed Nicoll over and rolled on top of him and covered him up. The grenade went off. It rang my doorbell. The blast hit me in the leg, back of the arms, buttocks. The flack jacket took a lot of the blast.” He recalled, “I thought I’d bleed to death… That’s way I rolled over (the wounded Marine) to save him.”
Fonseca got his Navy Cross for his action on March 23, 2003. In the opening days of the war, a convoy of vehicles came under attack by the enemies’ fire as well as strafed (machine gunfire) by a U.S. jet accidentally. He recalled, “All this chaos around you, and I told myself real quick, ‘I’m not going to make it out of here.” Waiting to be next, he was thinking, “Is it going to be quick? Is it going to be painful? Am I going to feel anything?” What was he doing in the mean time? He was running from one vehicle to the next to treat wounded Marines.
Their moments of clarity when they thought they were going to die caught my attention. Thinking they were going to die, many of these brave soldiers were wired, trained to act to protect their comrades, fellow soldiers. But, the acts to throw their bodies to protect their comrades didn’t just happen. As the slogan states, they were trained to know and determine the price for freedom beforehand.
As Christians, our ultimate hero who is to receive the highest Medal of Honor in the universe is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrew writer calls us to think of him, to fix our eyes on him for he is “the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” To
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that we will not grow weary and lose heart.” says Hebrews 12:2-3.
Did Jesus think of dying on the cross for the first time when the moment came to be crucified? The truth is that he had known and determined the price of freedom for us; the price would be his death on the cross. Philippians 2:8 says, “before found in appearance of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross!”
He said in Luke 9:23-26: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
The reward is the freedom in Jesus Christ to experience God’s amazing love for us and to love him and love people. The reward is the freedom from the bondages of self-cravings and absorption, self-exaltation, self-worship.
You need to know and determine that the cost to this freedom is to renounce your agenda, your expectation, your rights… another word, you need to die to your self pride, your perceived rights, your will to win arguments at all cost… you need to die to the worldly desires that wages war against you.
To know and determine speaks to the fundamental shift in orientation. It is the shift from living your life as you fit and want, to living your life through the life of Jesus Christ.
Christian spiritual maturity is about Christ’s life becoming more dominant reality in us. Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
May God help you to know and determine the price for freedom in Christ!
No comments:
Post a Comment