“Every man is bound somewhere, somehow, to a throne, to a government, to an authority, to something that is supreme, to something to which he offers sacrifice, and burns incense, and bends the knee.”—renowned Scottish author, pastor, G. Campbell Morgan
The apostle Paul agreed: “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one who you obey…” (Romans 6:16)
“Ya gotta serve someone,” goes a song from the 70s.
I thank God for all those men and women who have been and are bound to serving and preserving the Constitution, the flag and freedoms of the United States by their commitment to serve in the armed forces. We celebrated all veterans this past week. We should thank one every day, and ponder the high cost of freedom.
So my thoughts turn to the Fort Hood shooter—also a soldier. Whether he was a slave to some distorted ideology, a fringe element of his faith, or mental illness remains to be proven.
Some say he was carrying the weight of the many soldiers he had counseled as an Army psychiatrist, and that weight became too much.
But how many soldiers suffer or snap in ways that aren’t as stark? Some would argue that the costs of war are many and often hidden--that Major Nidal Malik Hasan, MD, shows how high the costs are, just in a more vivid and visible way.
The suicide, drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic abuse and divorce rates are often reported as higher for combat veterans. Those are pretty high prices to pay.
Those statistics and sufferers make me less critical when diplomatic negotiations and peace talks drag on for days…or decades, and seem to accomplish little. If those can prevent one soldier from death, maiming or these psychological horrors, then let the peace talks press on.
We all serve someone or something. There are many masters: money, sex, power, popularity, our past, our pain, what people think, our country or our cause. We all have some master, which calls the shots in our lives.
There is only one benevolent Master who always knows what’s best for us, consistently wants that, and loves us to the uttermost…so much He died in our place to take our sin on Himself. That’s Jesus Christ.
If we all gotta serve someone, why not Him?
