American Revolution Two

“Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.”
- President Harry Truman

The tremendous cost of our freedom has been paid in full by over 1.3 million American patriots spanning every generation. That’s roughly 5,500 a year or 15 a day since the likes of Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington staked their claim of independence in 1776. The sheer magnitude of this sacred sacrifice goes far beyond these sobering and haunting numbers. Each one of these brave patriots was and is mourned by wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends and neighbors. Each of them had dreams. All of them had talents and treasures to share – a life purpose to fulfill. They lived, they loved, they laughed and they cried. They suffered and died. Each of them had souls to which they freely gave back to God so that you and I could live each day in freedom.

How can we possibly honor this most sacred sacrifice? Truman was right. Our debt to these courageous and selfless citizens can never be fully repaid. But there are things we can do to respond to all that has been done on our behalf – that we might live on and live free.

Our reverent participation in Memorial Day is one small way that we can respond in gratitude. How we recognize the day and its significance is vital to our survival as a nation. Without an adequate understanding and awareness of the perpetual cost that must be paid in order for liberty to survive…it will be lost.

Could there be a greater wish on the part of those who paid the ultimate price than for us to fight on, living in gratitude and selfless service to the country they served? Their humbling sacrifice is why we maintain the struggle – it is the genesis of our patriotism and the fuel that sustains us.

We honor their sacrifice by responding accordingly:

• Honor Memorial Day the way it was started after the Civil War by visiting a veteran’s cemetery and placing flags or flowers on the graves of those who died for us. Pray for the loved ones who have wept over these graves.

• Sit for a while in the stillness of the dawn – in silent reverence to these courtiers of our liberty. Ponder the sacrifice, the cost and where you might be without it.

• Read aloud with your family the solemn words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

• Renew your commitment to participate in a government designed “of the people, by the people and for the people.” Ponder what it means to be an American – and make sure your children and grand children understand it too.

• Pay it forward with your devotion and commitment to engage the epic battle for American freedom on at least one of the two fronts we face (read about them here).

If we choose to forgo such actions – on this solemn day or any other – their sacrifice will be in vain and everything they died for will be lost. How else will their legacy live on if not through us?

I want to close with a stirring account of the spirit of self sacrifice paid by these brave and honored dead. During his first inaugural address in January of 1981, President Ronald Reagan spoke of the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery and the row upon row of white markers that add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that’s been paid for our freedom. He continued saying:

“Under one such marker lies a young man — Martin Treptow — who left his job in a small-town barbershop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire. We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading ‘My Pledge,’ he had written these words: ‘America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone’.”

Who among us will champion Martin Treptow’s spirit and devotion, that this great nation might live on in freedom and liberty? Standing up in the affirmative is the only way we can rightly honor his sacred sacrifice. So what are you waiting for?