What A True Hero Looks Like on 911

My husband sits at a military base in Washington. I talk to him on the phone.

The military men and women stand, in full attire, guns in hand, bullet proof vests trying to defend our land.

And have we forgotten the price of freedom?  Have we forgotten many died so you and I could live in a country desired by every nation around the world?

file0001980652808I see a picture on Facebook. My cousin, Noah, stands, just graduated from boot camp.

He left a boy, but is now a man. He went a child, and is now eighteen and willing to stand with those who once went to war and died for our freedom.

And why is it we forget.  Why do we coast along, until days like this, where towers fell, and eyes were fixed to the t.v. screen.  

Why do we have to wait until horror strikes for us to place value and worth and sacredness in the American people?

I remember him upstairs. The man who was my Grandfather and fought in World War II.

I remember his silence most of all, along with the repercussions of facing those bent on a holocaust, having guns and the flag behind him flying red, white and blue.

And I don’t know about war. I don’t know about guns and fighting, and killing of souls that embody the breath of Jehovah.  

But what I do know is bravery and courage does not equate hiding, shrinking, denying, staying silent while any enemy floods a land, and wants innocent life, shedding blood at hate’s expense.

After all, isn’t it “when good men do nothing”, evil prevails?

Isn’t it the complacency of generations that makes children live with their heads in video games, when real wars are happening, real guns are going off, real men are being held captive, or fighting for a cause?

While simulations and video game addicts cannot emulate the true wars going on around the world.

And why is it, we love ignorance, when our God got low and came to defend what’s good?

Why is it we can be like the Pharisees who had their own brand of truth and wanted to just “maintain” their own empires, making external rules, condemning the Savior who divides the real heroes from cowards?

And on this day, September 11th, I don’t want to find out what happens when we fight about trans-genders, political aspirations, woman standing up to defend their beliefs….

But fail to name an enemy, confront sin spreading, let babies be targets, and a terror take over a people while we sit scrolling Facebook.

And if we stay silent, if we turn our heads, and care more about what we are having dinner tonight that the plight of the hungry, the refuges, the victims….what does that say about us?  

What does that say about true heroism, the cost those paid who jumped from the towers a flames in death?

Did they die so that we might not see?  Did those fire-fighters charge the buildings and risk their lives so that we could live in ignorance…just forgetting?

Today, my husband drives into the Navy Base. He sees the big ships, sees the many brave standing at attention in their regal, fully dressed uniforms ready to defend our nation…

And I wonder if it’s time, we too put our armor on?  If it’s timfile000850100179e we wrap ourselves in the cost of freedom, fly our flags, and counting the cost that many paid so that you we could live in freedom?

I bow my head today, remembering those who died; the fighters, the war heroes, the young men who are signed up to defend our land.

And might we stand with them, committing to being a people who refuse to live in ignorance, committing to never let silence win…

And refusing to be “good people who do nothing”, but instead living in a way that exemplifies truth and bravery, waving our red, white, and blue and standing on…

“One nation under God”…

Along with the true heroism our founding fathers gave us, when they build the American dream.

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3 Comments

  1. Hi Jen I like the way you draw inspiration from events and you write encouraging posts that influence our Christian faith. And I agree, when we are silent evil prevails.
    God Bless Jen

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