What is a Fitting Memorial?

Surely it is legitimate and even obligatory that a nation remember with deep respect those people who gave their lives in defending its domestic sovereignty among the nations. God's Word requires that we give honor to whom honor is due.

However, the tribute we give on Memorial Day seems so grossly disproportionate to the sacrifice. We are talking about real human beings with lives no less significant to them than our lives are to us. We are talking about sons, brothers, husbands, fathers and, in some instances, daughters, sisters, wives whose lives in this world were cut off usually in the most horrible of circumstances and far away from home. How difficult to be far from home and sick, when the people and surroundings which might impart comfort cannot be seen and heard! How much worse to be in jeopardy of death, frightened, perhaps suddenly struck down, alone, in abject pain, and without comfort! What an unbelievably monstrous invention is war! What memorial can be adequate for those who summoned the self-discipline and self-denial to leave home and comfort in order to serve, to risk their lives, to encounter horror, and ultimately to die? Bands, speeches, picnics - it all seems so inadequate.

There must be something more we can do, something immeasurably better. There is something much better and more urgent to do, we can invest our lives for the preservation of our nation from an enemy more insidious than any invading foreign army. Never has America been in greater danger of ruin but instead of fighting, we are embracing the enemy as though a friend.

What is this enemy? It is the enemy of moral decay on a personal and community level. Unprincipled, immoral behavior is eating the guts out of America; yet, few are willing to fight against it. The enemy seems friendly and personable, disarming. Perhaps lying to the boss in order to spend a day on the lake or enjoying a one night affair with the stranger at the bar - personal pleasures, victimless crimes, we are told. Yet such things, some smaller some larger, have wrought incalculable damage on the individual and public conscience. Bit by bit we have embraced the poison of a relative morality - 'let everyone do what seems right for them and no one has the right to judge.' Thus, we have become a nation of covenant-breakers, a nation of liars. Pledges, commitments are nothing more than conveniences to gratify personal desires. Once those desires are met, or if the commitment becomes more difficult than we wish, we fancy ourselves at liberty to walk away leaving broken marriages, parentless children, unpaid debts, employees without work, employers without employees, churches without members, friends broken and disillusioned.

No society prospers or endures apart from trust, reliability, and the common purpose to do what is right irrespective of the personal cost. There would be nothing to memorialize had this not been the policy of multitudes before us. Did others give their lives for the purpose of fostering a generation of parasites who would destroy the nation for the satisfaction of their personal pleasure?

A fitting memorial would be a revival of personal integrity - multitudes determining to adhere to the moral absolutes of God's Word and insisting that others do the same. God will forgive all those sinners who repent of their sins and cast themselves upon Jesus Christ seeking mercy. He will restore their lives. But there is no mercy for those who continue in their sin no matter how much they pray, preach, or salute the flag!