Thursday, June 28, 2012

Soldiering On?

Last week I read a short article in the June 24, 2012 edition of Parade Magazine by Hilary Sterne about Pat Tillman's widow Marie. Maybe some of you remember that Pat was a star football player for the Arizona Cardinals who after 9/11, quit playing football in 2002 in the prime of his career, and enlisted in the military to fight for his country. Sadly, Pat was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004. But before he did, he wrote his wife a letter encouraging her to move on with her life should he not return.

For years, Marie struggled to do so. But eventually she did. Becoming the director of The Pat Tillman Foundation which is a national leader in providing resources and educational scholarship to support veterans and active service members and their spouses. Additionally, Marie re-married and became mom to an investment banker's three sons and most recently a newborn son named Mac Patrick. She also wrote a book called The Letter: My Journey Through Love, Loss & Life. In it, she shares her story and reflects on how grateful she is to have the opportunity to do the work she does in Pat's honor.

As Christ followers, we too have a story to tell. About a willing Savior. Who left heaven in all his glory. To dwell on earth. One friend of mine says that would be like one of us becoming an ant. To save a colony of ants. But that's what Jesus did. And God inspired the Bible to remind us of these truths by including a bunch of literal letters inside it all trying to say the same thing to us: I love you like crazy!!! I love you flaws and all!!! Will you love me back till death do us part? Will you, too, soldier on? John 13:1 says, "Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end." So this Interdependence Day, will we?

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