Good Monday morning...

… and I join you in celebrating the service of our military veterans.  This national holiday started as a remembrance of the end of the Great War on November 11, 1919, one year after the armistice, and to honor those who served.  The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C. became a national reminder of the sacrifice made by our service members.

Today, I am remembering with deep gratitude the impact the USMC had on my father and cousin.  I will never forget the meeting my dad and I had during a particularly difficult season of my early college years.  I was struggling with my zoology major and was planning to change directions… not really knowing what I was going to do.  He took me out for dinner off the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and said to me, “when I was your age I started and stopped a lot of things.  I joined the Marine Corps, and it changed my life.  Now, you get your (rear end) back in school and finish, zoology courses and all!”  I did.

My dad’s experience in the USMC was described as, “something I wouldn’t wish for anyone, but one that I wouldn’t take a million dollars for either.”  He was always proud of his service, but never disappointed that he met and married my mom shortly after his service.

In the next year after my dad gave me the “pep talk” about staying in school, I was visiting a cousin, who had also served in the USMC and had become a pastor.  I visited him during spring break, in 1982, after our family had moved to California and I had returned to Miami University to figure out what I was doing with my life.  My cousin Craig asked me, “so now that you’re not going to be a dentist, what are you going to do?”  After hemming and hawing a bit, I said, “I don’t know, business I guess.”  Craig said, “Mike, I see you much more a people-person than a paper-person; I challenge you to go into the ministry.”

It was the next day that I responded to what felt very much like a call on my life.  I prayed, “God, if You want me in the ministry, I’ll go.”  And that began a new and focused journey that included Bible college and ordained ministry in the churches ever since.

I’m sure that all of us can recall the impact of someone in our lives who has served our country through the armed forces.  Today we remember with gratitude the service they provided.  As Christians, we are in the service of our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.  The experience and wisdom we share with the people in our lives will not be honored like the service of our Veterans, however, the impact of our service on the lives of the people we know is to be even more impactful, for its implications are eternal.

For His glory,

Pastor Mike