Memorial Day 2022

 Memorial Day 2022

As a Christian husband and father, I have been remiss in celebrating Memorial Day.  It was a big holiday when I was a little boy, but always full of tension.  Both sides of my family, the Prices and the Reeds celebrated, but the difference in the celebrations was significant.  The Reed boys had mostly served in the Army during WWII and when returning home joined the local veteran clubs, the VFW or the American Legion.  We lived out in the country, the Kingston area, and my dad and other local veterans got together and built their own club, the Kingston Veterans & Sportsman Club.  Dad always took us to the local memorial services.  After the local parade and 21 gun salutes at the cemetery or local memorial, the Reed celebrations were much like you see on beer commercials today; beer, songs, laughter, ball games, and more beer, until the fighting started.  That is usually left out of the commercials.  The next day it was always hard to get back to work.

The Price side of the family was much more religious, attending the small Assembly of God church in Bradenville and did not drink at all, at least the women.  So mom and dad never agreed on attending the family celebrations, regardless of the holiday.  While the Reed celebrations were certainly more exciting, they never seemed to end well.  Memorial Day at the Price family was a much-subdued affair.  Religious is not the same as Christianity, but gets confused.

But I have avoided the conflict, by doing nothing.  Which was not the right course to take.  I should have taken my family to the local celebrations and honored those who served the country during the wars.  I should have been more involved in the politics of my country on many issues.  But this issue also overlaps onto my Christian life.  We celebrate Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving, but do I do enough to celebrate these special days?  Do I acknowledge God’s grace to us and honor God-like family members who have gone before?  My sister Margie and I were talking about becoming invisible to the following generations in the family.  Should we honor some of our worthy ancestors more than we have?  Do we have any of their photos on our walls?  Do stories of spiritual victories get passed down to our children?  Do we collect them and tell them and retell them, like precious family legends?

My Grandma Price was a prayer warrior, full of the Holy Spirit and communicating with God.  My mother and Cheryl’s Grandma Whitehead were other Godly women.  Dad was in the 752 Armored Division and served for over 400 days at the front lines in Africa and Italy because the USA could not provide tank or soldiers replacements fast enough to make up for the losses to Rommel’s German tanks.  Uncle Charles on Cheryl’s side was in the horrific Bataan March in the Philippines.  Life on this wicked earth is not easy, and we must be aware of those who sacrificed and protected our freedoms, in our country, and in God.

Making Decisions, Just Like God Does.

Being a Christian is to be like God. God opens doors, but he does not push us through the door.  He also shuts doors, but He does not prevent us from going around the closed door.  And as we wrestle with life decisions, I think we need to understand an important truth: God’s primary will for us is the God-like person we become.  We are to be God's image here on Earth.

Paul, an apostle of God says that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1:4).  In other words, we must strive to recognize that God’s primary will for our lives is not our job, how wealthy we are, where we live, or who we know; it’s who we become.  God’s basic desire for our lives is that we become people of excellent character and divine love.  Become God-like, being both holy and blameless, loving as God loves.  This does not point to perfection, only God is perfect.

Making decisions is an indispensable tool in the formation of excellent persons.  A big part of our job as Christians is to develop the capability to make God-like decisions ourselves.  Can you imagine if we always had to ask someone else to make our decisions for us?  Or if we lived in a situation where we are not allowed to make any decisions for ourselves?  That is life in a Marxist, or any dictatorial, regime.  This is living in sin and under the world’s control.  God desires that we, you and I, become truly God-like people, He insists that we make our own decisions.  God-like people with excellent will, judgment, and character get formed in no other way.  We make one God-like decision after another; many are about small issues; some are major issues.

I think the same is true of God’s will for a person's life, it will often be “You decide.”  Sometimes you pray for direction, and God seems to say “You choose.”  That means God cares more about our decision-making and our character than specifics like colleges, careers, cars, houses, etc.  Don't misunderstand, sometimes God really does have a specific assignment for specific people, like Moses taking on Pharaoh, or Saul becoming Paul, and God is able and willing to make this clear.  When the burning bush or the blinding light is necessary, the burning bush or blinding light will be there.  But much of the time, wisdom itself will actually guide us on the right course, if there actually is a "right" choice, in these big decisions.  God says He will give wisdom to those who ask, so ask for wisdom.  Be aware you are God-like, seek wisdom, and be aware of God’s presence, make God-like decisions.

A lack of specific guidance from heaven regarding which decision to choose does not mean God or we have failed.  Very often it is just the opposite: God knows we grow more from making a decision than if we were to get a clear, command from heaven that would prevent us from growing at all.  And we have a very limited view, our little decision may have a major impact on a fellow Christian.  So, practice, and make good God-like decisions on all your choices.  Each choice is an opportunity to practice.