I want to share part of my morning devotion with you. This holiday weekend we celebrate something that I think is sometimes hard for many of us to comprehend: the sacrifice of soldiers’ lives for the sake of our freedom. In recent years I’ve heard many conflicted views on this matter. But I think it would be a mistake to see these brave men and women as merely victims. While each fallen soldier has a unique story, each soldier is a hero who willingly laid down his or her life for a greater cause. I think part of our struggle to understand the fallen soldier comes with our difficulty in accepting sacrifice, especially when a sacrifice seems so final and appears to hold no obvious reward. The idea that anyone could give up everything – for people he doesn’t even know – is hard to process. We spend so much of life trying to gain, to acquire, to win. Our country is home to the American Dream, the land of opportunity. So contemplating the fallen solider can feel uncomfortable, even confusing. (Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.) So often I meditate on Christ’s sacrificial love, but fail to love Him sacrificially in return. I thank Him with my words, but do little to change my life. Yet this is what God desires of us. We call our soldiers “service men / women” yet that term should describe Christians as well. Just as sacrifice is required to secure our freedom as Americans, freedom does not exist independently of sacrifice in the life of the believer. Yes, the gift of faith brings us freedom – freedom from sin, freedom to be who God made us to be and to know God more deeply. But that freedom came with the price of the Cross and our gift of freedom is to be used for service. This Memorial Day let’s not forget the price paid for our Freedom in America, but even greater let’s remember the price paid for our Freedom from sin. Pastor Don