Blog:FOREST LAKE TALKS

Dear Friends,

On the Friday before Memorial Day, nine FLPC members joined with others from the community to place flags on every one of the 13,00 graves in the National Cemetery at Fort Jackson.  It was heartening to see the diversity both in the folks who were planting flags, and in the folks buried in that cemetery.  The first impression of the cemetery is sameness.  The 13,000 gravestones all look exactly the same.  But, as I planted flags before each of those identical gravestones, I read of lives as varied and different as I could imagine.  There were religious symbols of every sort, and all sorts of civic symbols, and names from every ethnic group imaginable.  Everyone in that cemetery shares one unifying thread.  All of them served our nation either directly as a soldier, or as the spouse of a soldier.  Many of them died in that service. 

We all know that freedom is not “free.”  And as we approach the July 4th holiday, it is a good time to remember that our freedom to worship, even our freedom to make bad decisions, is built on the costs paid and sacrifices made by those who came before us.  The cost of war goes far beyond the loss of life (and that cost is unimaginable). Rabbi Erik Uriarte (who himself is a US veteran) showed me a teaching from the Mishna that goes something like: Whoever destroys a single soul is regarded a though he destroyed a complete world; and whosoever preserves a single soul is regarded as though he preserved a complete world.” 

Each of us has a role to play in “spending” the freedom that was purchased for us.  We all must pay for freedom.  To have freedom, we must acknowledge and celebrate diversity while we work for the good of the whole. You and I do not have to agree on everything, but we do have to treat each other with respect.  To have freedom, we must be willing to give up some personal freedom so that everyone abides by the same rules. Every time we drive down Forest Drive, we abide by the speed limit to keep the FAPD and other drivers safe.  To have freedom, we share some of what we have.  We pay taxes because we want everyone’s roads to be paved and every child to attend a school that is reasonably funded. As Christians our freedom is subject to and guided by our love for God. As a nation, we value independence and freedom.  But unless we balance our personal independence and freedom with community and the good of the whole, we will cannibalize our own freedom. 

There is a cost to freedom.  Are we willing to pay that cost?  Happy July 4th.