My perennial Memorial Day post
Every year I find myself cringing whenever most holidays roll around. Thanksgiving is plowed through to the great Black Friday celebration of cheap crap. Christmas is feted earlier each year as retailers try to increase our piety towards our greatest faith, Materialism.
I’m especially grumpy when Memorial and Veteran’s Day roll around. We don’t take war seriously, for most of us it’s a thing that happens to other people far away, and if we clap when we see military personnel walking through the airport or attach a bumper sticker to the car that’s our part done.
Image from Botana at Pixabay
Memorial Day is not about all military personnel (but it’s easier for us to just sort of make it a generic military appreciation day), it’s for the remembrance of those who served and have died. Death and war and the incredible difficulties that accompany military service are not as pleasant as mattress sales and long weekend TV marathons. But as long as we refuse to reckon with the ugliness of war, and the lasting affect on those who experience it directly, we will continue down a path of self-destruction. Ignorance may be bliss, but it’s a bliss that will lead to a massive debt coming due.
Take time today to remember those who have given their lives in military service. Think about those for whom war was an unwelcomed intrusion into daily life—threatening children, houses of worship, destroying homes and bringing famine. Really spend time thinking about the suffering that war causes-for all involved.
Then commit yourself to ending it and caring for its victims.
Micah 4:3
He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
They Died For Amazing Savings
