God, Honor and Country

It seems like such a cliche' to utter those words, but in the wake of the latest terrorist attack in Afghanistan, I thought this would be a good time to talk about it.

Folks who have never served in the armed forces, been front line responders, or served on the mission field,  have a difficult time understanding how deeply those words mean to those who do serve. Let me take a stab at it. First, you would die honoring God for your faith, so if they die being persecuted that is the highest honor one could achieve. Those Marines knew the risks of their service, some will look at it as a needless loss of life, others will see that it was their most honorable death.

Honor is a word that has been less frequently used lately, but to me it means that if you are in a cause, you pursue it with as much passion that you have, defend it with your life, and act courageous in the process. You may also use the words "act like it". If you are a Marine, act like the absolute best fighting man in the world, you ae a defender of freedom. If you are a preacher or evangelist, be sure that everyone is watching how you act. Be honorable, even in conflict or defeat. Live like you mean what you do.

And if you are serving this country then you remember the price that was paid for our freedom, so we do the same, putting it all on the line at every moment. Cops who are at risk, firefighters who face impossible odds, hospital staff that are dealing with this pandemic, all heroes who know they may die for their cause. Do we hope they die, absolutely not, but when they do, as painful as it is for family and friends, we need to remember as a society these are the ones who laid it on the line for virtually each one of us. Always honor them.

Honors to my fallen Marine comrades who died yesterday, and when I heard the news I nearly cried. It reminded me of our motto Semper Fi, which means always faithful. I remind myself of that every day doing this addiction recovery ministry. Doesn't matter how everyone else around us acts, this is our cause, this is where we serve, this is where God led us, helping other fallen people is the most honorable profession we know.

​Those Marines died for our country, Christ died for the world, they were faithful, He is always faithful, and we are just here at ATB, regardless of the odds of recovery, regardless of any dangers we may face, to remain faithful every day to those we serve, including one amazing God and a sometimes less amazing country!.

God, Honor, Country words we never want to take lightly.