1 John 3:16 - "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."
In a terrific book on relationships, "Each for the Other" by Bryan Chapell, the awesome love letter of one of the Civil War's first casualties, Sullivan Ballou, is recounted. In the following section of the letter, we can see how Ballou entered the Battle of Bull Run with total conviction about and full acceptance of the possibility that his life would be lost in the struggle for a cause that was critical for humanity, greater than him, and a worthy recipient of his life. Ballou wrote to his "very dear Sarah:"
"I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . ."
Ballou's letter and eventual death a week later at the first Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, remind us of a few things:
1) We are all indebted beyond measure to the vision, conviction, courage, and, yes, love for truth and humanity that ultimately characterizes our great nation's greater Veterans.
2) Ballou and our Veterans are both a reality but also a parable who point us to the ultimate Veteran of a Foreign War, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who had Divine vision, conviction, courage, and, yes, love for truth and humanity that led him to go to war against guilt, sin, fear, death, and the Evil One and his cronies, in order to defeat these enemies and set us free from the spiritual chains they held us with.
3) We are blessed to have these earthly and divine testimonies and examples that God surely gives us all in order to inspire us to live with such vision, conviction, courage, and, yes, love for truth and humanity that lead us to go to war each day against the ills of our daily lives with the ultimate weapon that is faith in, and therefore access to the power of, Jesus Christ, which is the Holy Spirit!
Think about it! And do it!
Happy Fourth of July Week!
May God grant us victory in all our variously-sized battles for truth and life!
Praise God!
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