The Sacrifice of Life for Freedom-Memorial Day 2022

Today, on this Memorial Day, America remembers those who fought in our battles for our freedom and lost their lives. It is a day to remember that nothing is free. Someone pays the ultimate price. With their sacrifice, we have the freedom to speech, to protest, to vote, to choose our own careers, to own property, and to have the right to education, along with many other freedoms that others may not have in other places in the world. Even though our country has its flaws and problems, as every other country in the world, we do live in a country that gives us freedom. 

In the past couple of years, we have realized that we must be grateful for our freedom. If we become irresponsible, we lose the freedom that we love and enjoy. We have the responsibility to take care of our freedoms. Even though we all have our own political beliefs, we must realize that it is not through a politician or a political agenda that will further our freedom. It is in our actions of how we treat our fellow Americans. We must become more loving. If there are many men and women who were willing to die for the freedom of this country, we must have the sacrifice to see Americans as human beings, and love them with the love of Jesus, which may take sacrifice.  

If we want to keep our freedom, we must sacrifice. We must sacrifice our own desires for the good of others. As Christians, we must think of the desires of others above ourselves. For everyone to enjoy freedom, we must all sacrifice. We all have something in our own lives that we must sacrifice. Our sacrifice comes because of the ultimate sacrifice given for us. 

As Christians, we have freedom from death because of the sacrifice of Jesus. He gave His life so that we can be free. He didn’t die when we decided to be good and attend church. He died for us while we were still sinners. “For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps some might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8, CSB) Jesus sacrificed his life, so we can have the freedom to live. 

With the sacrifices for freedom, it is why the church must begin to act. We cannot take our freedom for granted. Once we abuse it, we lose our freedom and become lukewarm in our faith. Faith without action is dead. (James 2:26) If we just wring our hands and claim that there is nothing that we can do because of the evil and wickedness in the world, then our faith is dead. All the heroes in the Bible fought for their faith, and with their actions, they were able to defeat the evil. 

This Memorial Day, we can all find one action that we can do for our own community that reveals sacrifice. It could be donating food and clothing for those in need. It could be volunteering with a community service for young people. It could be becoming involved with our own neighborhood and seeing who our neighbors are and sharing our freedom in Christ. The one command that Jesus gave us was not to hide in our comfortable homes, but to go and bring the gospel to every corner of the world. The corner of the world that needs Jesus most just might be right around the corner from where you live. So let us go and let our freedom ring! 

Dreaming Each and Every Day

 “You’re never too old to chase your dreams.” My pastor Erwin McManus spoke those words in March 2007, and my life has not been the same since. I remember that Sunday. It was the day that when I returned home after church, I began embarking on my writing career. I may not be a famous novelist or nonfiction book seller yet, but I have grown in the craft of writing. It all started because I heard the encouraging words of my pastor that I was not too old to chase my dreams. 

No matter what life has brought you, you are not too old to chase your dreams or to begin chasing a new dream. The barriers that stood in your way in the past must be removed. Once those barriers are removed, you will be able to see clearly what you must do. God gave us our passions and dreams because he uses them for his work. 

First, we must rid ourselves of comparison. We cannot compare our place on the journey with someone else. We all have different paths on our journeys. Some of us can travel in a straight line. Others of us, travel with every curve, hill, and valley. Every move we make is an adventure. No matter what part of the journey you are traversing, it is where you need to be. I learned this the hard way. 

In youth ministry, I began speaking in places other than my church. At an event, the disorganized leader, whom I had admired as someone who had it all together and took the straight route on her journey in youth ministry, created a mess. I discovered that her perfection for organization was a façade.  Not only was she disorganized, but instead of taking ownership of her own mistakes, she blamed everyone that she asked to do tasks. I took her hits, and I have learned not to do the same mistake. I discovered that on her straight path to success in ministry, she never learned humility or how to treat humans with genuine kindness when she made a mistake. 

I learned from that youth leader, that we both had our own journeys. Neither one of us were in competition with one another. We could both do the same tasks and receive results that were needed by the people we served. I struggled with comparison. Once I see my heroes flaws, I realize that I can admire, but not think less of myself and my own talents. 

Along with not comparing ourselves with others, we must push aside jealousy. Other people have their own struggles. When we find what their struggles in life are, we will let them have their success. I have learned so much from my own path on the journey with its twists and turns. I wouldn’t trade it for anyone else’s journey. We must follow Romans 12:15. “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” Christians are good at weeping with others, but we must work on our rejoicing with others. I have friends who have books published after taking on writing from a hobby to a career in a matter of two years. Others of us are still working. I rejoice with the publication of other people’s books. They didn’t write what I would write. It was never a competition, so jealousy does not need to exist. 

Instead of jealousy, we must celebrate the success of others. I realized that when I celebrate others and encourage them to continue, it reminds me that I too can celebrate my small successes. Even if a human being does not celebrate, I can. God celebrates our successes. Jealousy becomes bitterness, and creativity cannot exist in a bitter world. After time, our passion for our art decreases because we are just bitter over what others have. Our talents must be used to build others up. When we use our talents for others, bitterness, anger, and jealousy cannot exist within us or our talents. 

Chasing the wrong dreams can be a reason we are not achieving them. I love watching the Olympics, but I am not, never was, and never will be a world class athlete. It is not something that I have been given the gifts to be. Sometimes, it’s not the wrong dream, but the wrong venue. 

So many people come to Hollywood chasing their dream to be in the Hollywood world, and so few of them can succeed or receive jobs that will pay the bills. Maybe we are meant to use our talents for a smaller community than the whole world. The movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus reminds us that serving others and making a difference in the lives of others around us daily is more important than being famous or chasing our original dream. 

Whatever your dreams are, you can find a way to establish a path to achieve them. You may have to discover another means to them. Our dreams were given to us to serve God. If your dream is to just be rich and famous, it will not serve God’s purpose, and you will not be fully satisfied. Our hearts are full when we accomplish the passions that God has given us. Those passions are our dreams. Let us fulfill our calling and chase those dreams that God has given us. 

Springing into Life in a World of Chaos

 Turning on the news or scrolling through social media, we discover that our world is full of violence and brokenness. We have a choice of how we live our lives. We can choose to live with kindness or wickedness. As Christians, we must choose kindness. With that choice, we must make changes and growth in our hearts, actions, and our churches. 

Chaos. Some people love the world of chaos. I always know the students in my classroom who will create chaos as they will tell me that they do not want “drama” in their lives. Every single student who has said that has been involved and even created the drama circling around their persona. They live for the chaos. With the chaos, they either receive attention, or they can divert the attention off them and spread it onto others. Their victims get hit and their lives are turned upside down until they can gain control again. We cannot always control the chaos, but we can control how we respond to other people’s chaos, and we can choose not to create chaos for those around us. 

Christians must choose not to create chaos. We choose chaos when we choose to berate and insult people in real life and online. When we attack people online with our words, we don’t realize that they may have difficulty springing to life as they have chaos in other dimensions swirling around them. We must choose kindness and use our words to inspire them. They may have done wrong, but insults and cruelty will not change their actions but their attitudes toward those who are insulting them in a negative way. 

Our words must be full of love, truth, and kindness. Yes, we can speak the truth, IN LOVE. Without speaking the truth in love, your words are worthless and create chaotic situations. I have had to learn not to reply to everyone online who make statements to incite arguments. I have also learned to not ask those people questions. I don’t want to incite chaos. I have, and the result is not fun. Let’s all work to inspire others with love, truth, and kindness. 

When we choose our words with love and kindness, we are changing, and our change creates growth in us.  We don’t have to comprise our beliefs, but we can compromise our strategies and be innovative and think of new ways to approach people. Imagine a world where people are striving to be more kind with their words. The truth would prevail with love. Change in everyone would occur. We change when we hear the truth, and it touches us. We don’t change when someone tries to force us to believe the truth. Force is never used in scripture where the gospel is concerned. 

The church must become a place of restoration and healing. It should never be a place of blasting those that believe differently than us. We restore relationships when we show that we care more about the person than the issue for which they are standing and fighting for. The church is to be a hospital, not a museum. A hospital is full of people restoring others to health and life. A museum is full of relics and death. Our love for traditions and rightness cannot outweigh our love for humans. Restoring people to health requires that we communicate and serve with sacrifice. 

We must become peacemakers. We must admit that our own words and actions can inflict others and inspire them to do good or evil. There is no place for racism in the church. The most insane action the church has done is to go on the mission field to other countries proclaiming the gospel, and then at home segregating ourselves from those same people and their culture. God brings people into our lives. How we respond to that action reveals our faith and love in God. 

We have a choice. We can choose to love others with the love of Jesus and repair relationships, or we can continue to defend our rightness and destroy relationships with people who need to meet Jesus. We say all the right words on Sunday mornings. It’s time we take our Sunday morning talk outside of the church and into the streets with our friends who need Jesus. Let us love with our words and be peaceful. It all starts once we decide to spring into life and let the life of Jesus shine through us. Maybe this next weekend we can have stories of people helping and saving others instead of killing them. 

These lives needed our world to be full of peace and love. Let’s change and be full of love and kindness in their memory. 

Roberta A. Drury

Andre Mackneil

Katherine Massey

Margus D. Morrison

Heyward Patterson

Aaron Salter

Geraldine Talley

Ruth Whitfield

Pearl Young

Duking Out Our Words with Wisdom from the Sports World

Duking Out Our Words with Wisdom from the Sports World

Discourse and debate are on the decline in our country, especially on social media. We throw memes, articles, and insults at those who do not agree with us. None of those devices would win anyone a debate championship in the world of debate. As an English teacher, I have had to teach my students how to have a debate and not use any of those devices. Then, as we were reading an article in class, one which I’ve read a dozen times, I realized why so many people do not have debate skills. They do not cheer for the most hated teams in sports. 

Some of my friends are sports fans, and they defend their teams. However, defending the Los Angeles Angles is one thing. Defending Duke basketball or the New York Yankees in any sports conversation takes it to a whole other level. (By the way, from small research, the most hated team in sports is the New York Yankees and the second one is Duke basketball.)  We can learn from the discourse of those of us who must defend the dark side. 

First, we cannot just use a cliché or a meme for defense. That’s just a conversation starter. It never just makes a mic drop point for everyone to gasp and move forward. It just brings out the fodder. As sports fans, we know this. It is why sports fans use this. We see memes and clichés as fun. As a sports fan of the most hated team in college basketball, I know when I’m poking people and pushing buttons with memes and any other gimmick. Trust me. I’ve had to take it, especially this year, from North Carolina fans when Duke loses. No meme or silly cliché will rescue me. You know what rescues? Admitting that my side is wrong and flawed and that the other side has a good point. Whoa. What a concept. 

Next, throwing insults does not stop people from discourse and debate. It just makes us angry. In sports, we insult the team or player, not the person defending the team or player. If we do, it leads to a fight. Just because someone is a Houston Astros fan does not make that person a cheater. (By the way, in future polls, they may become the most hated sports team, at least in Los Angeles.) We must stop throwing insults at people because of their beliefs or how they vote. No one is going to come to your side because you insulted them. We will question your integrity, your friendship, and your character. Insulting people is the lowest form of communication. 

I’ve been on both sides of it, and it has just created loneliness for me. I may have been right, but I was not righteous. I may have been right, but I was not loving, which made me worse than the person I insulted. For those who threw insults at me, they lost my respect. I wonder why we cannot communicate well anymore. Many times, insult throwers have difficult relationships with many people. 

Along with insults comes our blindness. As a Duke basketball fan, I know that not all the players have been angels. I cannot defend a player who purposefully trips others on the court. I agree that he should have had more reprimands than he received. As a Christian, I can see the good in what others believe. That’s how we start a discourse. We find what areas we can agree. If I’m in a debate with a North Carolina fan, I must admit that they had a great run this year. I don’t have to become their fan. I don’t have to switch sides or teams. I won’t. 

All your chastising and holiness of how right you are will not lead me to your side. It just won’t. It will force me to look to see the flaws of what you are defending. I find them. When I use them against you, you fall apart and start insulting because you have no defense. It’s a vicious cycle. 

We cannot be so blind to our flaws or the flaws in our belief system that we insult people and walk away as if we are holy, good, and righteous. We’re not. We become so ugly when we insult because we are blind. 

People are more important than our rightness. I can see your point of view and even acknowledge that it is a great point. I still don’t have to switch sides or believe the same thing. Why? Because I would never do that with my favorite sports teams. I stand firm in whom I support and in what I believe. Most of us do. 

When we do change our beliefs and who we support, it is through a lot of instances, thought, research, conversations, and even counselling. It doesn’t come from your quip on social media. It is usually an event in our own lives that takes us through the change. When we do make this change, if you have been rude, we will probably never admit that you were right. At least I won’t. If you were kind and know how to have good discourse, I will acknowledge you. 

Let us strive to be kind over right. Let us defend our beliefs and whom we support with discourse and debate that is civil. People listen to civil conversations. We haven’t had those in a few years from social media, or even from our leaders. We can’t wait for others to change and make a difference. We cannot change anyone but ourselves. You will not change my beliefs. You will not change my attitude. I will do that. I cannot change you. You must do that. Change doesn’t come with peer pressure. High school is over. Most of us learned that peer pressure led us down a dark path. A path of light comes when we go through a change that is beyond those who do not know us on a deeper level. 

Sports fans of the most hated teams can take the razing when our team loses. Our team deserves the insults. As a person, we don’t. We won’t switch teams because your team won. That’s a bandwagon fan, and true sports fans don’t jump on bandwagons. We stay with our team, even if we are the only one on the wagon. Again, if we ever do change, it will be with the utmost decision making on our part that will involve an event in our lives, not a meme, anyone’s quips, or quotes, or name calling. We stand strong. 

We can learn from sports fans. Listen to our conversations. Debate and discourse can happen with civility. It starts with each one of us being civil and treating each person as they are a precious person that Jesus loves and created, because they are. Then, maybe, we can have resolutions that will bring more unity into our lives rather than hate. It all starts with how we communicate.