Powerful tears stream down my cheeks.

I finished watching an hour documentary on Lt. Michael Murphy – a decorated war hero who was killed when his team was on the front line.  The documentary flowed through his childhood, through his training, his death and how life goes on afterwards.

It is strange to see someone’s life who you never met and yet feel so grateful that he (and so many others who remain in secret) do their daily tasks so America can remain free.  I have never served in the military. I have never had to face an enemy.  I will never know what our troops live with in their memories.  I cannot describe what it is like put my life on the line.

I have spent some time with our military men in the last few years.  I have found that you could take their name patches off and they would be very similar.  Every time I say “Thank you for your service,” they say, “It was my pleasure,”  “It was my duty,” or “It was my honor.”  This attitude of service is genuine and it always catches me when I hear it.  I have talked with Vietnam, WWII, Gulf War and modern day military veterans and those who currently serve.  They are all true heroes.

As a pastor, you would expect me to make a correlation to God or Christianity.  I could – it is so easy to find numerous analogies and stories.  Not today.

Just “Thank you men and women in our military.”

Thank you.