Freedom Isn't Free

With the fourth of July soon approaching, I wanted to post this poem which probably many of you have heard before. It's a good reminder of the true cost of freedom. To God be the glory that in America, we are still free to worship Him. And may He bless our troops.

I watched the flag
Pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine Saluted it,
And then he stood at ease..

I looked at
Him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square
And eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men
Like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign
Soil
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes
Shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers'
Graves ?
No, freedom isn't free

I heard the sound of Taps
One night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the
Bugler
Play And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant 'Amen,'
When a flag had draped a
Coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the Children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and
Husbands
With interrupted lives.

I Thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington .
No, freedom isn't free.

A Revival

For Easter I received a book called Though Waters Roar. All in all it was interesting, but far too sad for my taste. Anyway, that's not the point of this post. In fact, I only bring this up because the last few pages of the book are more than worth reading. Basically, this book is about a girl during prohibition helping her poor friend who was tricked into transporting alcohol from Canada to a saloon in the States. However, the friends have two young children and they cannot risk getting thrown in jail because the husband will never get a job and they are broke already. Long story short, that's where the heroine-- Harriet-- comes in. Harriet volunteers to deliver the alcohol herself under the condition that they agree to never, EVER, do anything like that again. Gratefully, her friends accept her offer, but in an unfortunate turn of events, Harriet is caught with the alcohol on her way to the saloon and thrown in jail. After she proves that she is not in to make money for herself by helping the police capture the still, she is freed and she goes to her grandma to tell her about what has happened. The problem? Her grandmother has fought for prohibition and against alcohol almost her entire life because her husband was an alcoholic.


All right, sorry that took so long. Now we have finally arrived to the part that really matters. At almost the end of the book, Harriet's grandmother tells her, "Jesus' harshest words were for the moral guardians of His day-- the Pharisees. They wanted to dictate morality, too, but Jesus called them hypocrites and whitewashed tombs. It isn't our calling as Christians to write laws that force people to live moral lives. As much as our communities might need it, and as bad as things are, imposing our morality on others isn't the answer. It doesn't work. People may be forced to give up alcohol, but they are still going to hell. That's our calling-- to bring people to Christ-- not to force them to behave the way we want them to or to solve all their external problems." She goes on to tell Harriet about different laws in the past that couldn't make people's hearts change. The Emancipation Proclamation set the slaves free, but it couldn't make people treat the former slaves as their equals. Prohibition could make drinking illegal, but if people's hearts were evil then it wouldn't really make a difference. They would still be wicked.

Now, please don't get me wrong, I do not say this or repeat this because I believe we should never have laws. God has laws, and I believe that our country should hold laws that uphold the laws that God gave. I believe this sincerely. What I am saying, however, is that laws do not change people's hearts. If one made all the laws in the world, it would not change the hearts of the people whose responsibility it was to uphold these laws. Only God can change hearts, and we must be willing to share the incredible news of the gospel with others, through evangelism and discipleship. Do you think that it's possible that sometimes Satan might distract us by getting us so involved in other causes, whether noble or not, that distract us from our ultimate goal-- to tell people about Christ and become like Christ?

I used to pray sometimes that God would change some laws in America. That He would change American's standards-- because it's always nice to live in a more moral society, right? But you know what I'm praying for now?

A revival.