If you have ever had a fever, you know that fevers are basically a whole lot of waiting for that moment when the fever breaks. You may have hours or even a day or more of discomfort as your symptoms work their course. And then, suddenly, the fever is done and you feel a sense of normalcy return. You may be tired, uncomfortable, sweaty, or weak, but you can tell that the fever has lost its grip and you are on the road to recovery.

So many times in life the challenge or the obstacle that faces you may appear unending, insurmountable, and vastly beyond your reach to overcome. And yet, just as suddenly as the enemy stepped in to oppose you, you reach a tipping point and suddenly you discover God moving things from all directions in your favor. Suddenly the complexity, the fear, the doubts, the anxiety, the stress, and the pain of the struggle releases its fiery grip and you can tell that you have survived the worst of it and victory is on its way.

The enemy wants you to believe that they are in control, that they determine your destiny, that they hold your life in their malicious grip and that you should just surrender and accept defeat. Maybe you are working on a big deal at work, and after investing time, energy, and resources above and beyond the usual effort the deal still falls through. Maybe you put together a presentation for investors and they don’t understand your vision and decide to allocate their capital elsewhere. Maybe you go in for your annual physical and the doctor says that you are facing something much larger than the slightly elevated cholesterol that you’ve known about for years. Maybe you’ve been single for so long that you are starting to believe there is no soulmate, no match waiting for you.

Whatever you find yourself waiting for today, know that as you wait, as you work, as you persist, as you continue there will come a time when God will suddenly show up and unleash a flood of favor the likes of which you have never seen before. If you choose to live with expectation, with hope and a future, with faith and confidence in the salvation that God has promised for you — if you are willing to face the enemy knowing that their time is limited, their success is only temporary and your victory in Christ is assured — if you are willing to fully embrace the destiny that God has placed before you, waiting expectantly and with dedication to the purpose for which you were created — to receive and experience love, goodness, peace, joy, abundance, health, well-being, confidence, vision, clarity, success, and super-natural blessings from God. If you choose life, if you choose God, if you choose love, if you choose health, if you choose goodness and mercy, faith and integrity, wisdom and insight, prosperity and salvation, then when you least expect it your waiting will suddenly come to an end and you will step into the victory that God has in store.

Imagine what it must have been like to be Abraham, remembering God’s promise,

“Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.” – Genesis 12

Imagine years passing and decades passing and still no children, still no heir, still not a single evidence that God was going to fulfill His promise and provide a descendant from which that “great nation” could arise. Imagine the frustration of trying time and again, over and over to live the life that God had promised and still experiencing nothing, seeing nothing, receiving nothing. Year after year Abraham and Sarah grew older. Year after year the scientific likelihood of them conceiving a child became less and less. Year after year Abraham’s only heir was a loyal and trustworthy servant who managed his house. No son. No daughter. No legitimate descendant. No heir to receive that fulfillment of God’s promises and be the start of the great nation that would bless everyone on earth.

Waiting is not a passive activity like some people believe. Faithful, confident expectation is a pro-active pursuit of the vision that God has placed on your life combined with an acceptance of the timing that God provides. There are so many variables, so many people, so many influences involved in accomplishing God’s will that you cannot possibly grasp the full context of the role you have to play or even begin to see the optimal timing and connection for every event in your life. God, who knows all things and all people, who is present and observes everywhere all the time, and who has infinite and eternal wisdom and insight is the only one who can manage, direct, and guide the entirety of reality to achieve the best possible outcome of victory and eternal life for the people He created.

Abraham and Sarah weren’t without children for lack of trying. They weren’t waiting for an immaculate conception or a virgin birth. Abraham and Sarah were doing everything in their power (and even a few things that were not necessarily well advised) in pursuit of receiving the fulfillment of God’s promises. And yet, it wasn’t until Abraham was 100 years old that God finally fulfilled His promise and Sarah gave birth to Isaac.

And, when it comes to the timing of the birth of Isaac, we read in the Bible that,

“Although Abraham was very old, Sarah had a son exactly at the time God had said.” – Genesis 21

So, the next time you find yourself waiting, don’t turn waiting into defeat, instead convert waiting into confident expectation because when you least expect it, God is going to suddenly accomplish His purposes in you, God is going to suddenly fulfill His promises in you, God is going to suddenly flood you with favor and bless you beyond your biggest and best dreams.

The post Sudden Favor first appeared on Steve Simons.

Every Sunday morning at 9:30AM you’ll find me at 6315 Sykesville Road in Eldersburg, MD setting up for the Creation Springs Church 10:30AM weekly service.

We put out a sign.  We set up chairs.  We hook up the sound system and put out the coffee and muffins.  We put Bibles and bulletins on the chairs.  We set up a kids corner.  We do a sound check.  And then, when everything is ready, we play top Christian hits at full volume until 10:30AM when people start to arrive for the main service.

We sing along.  We dance.  We praise.  We raise our hands.  We clap.  We get ready to worship.  We smile.  We relax.  We enjoy the Holy Spirit as is flows like a rising tide through the people gathered.  We hear the Word of God.  We pray.  We share the good news.  We pray some more.

The fact is, you can pray to God anywhere.

The fact is, you can experience the presence of God anywhere.

The fact is, you can study the Bible anywhere.

The fact is, you can repent of your sins anywhere.

The fact is, you can be saved anywhere.

So, why am I investing my time, my resources, my efforts, my relationships, my connections, and my creativity to be a part of or lead a church?

The fact is, a living church is nothing more than a collection of people who enjoy experiencing God’s goodness, reveling in God’s blessings, receiving God’s promises, and enjoying God’s favor together.

A living church is a cooperation, a collaboration, a relationship, a trust.

A living church is a purpose driven, spirit led, faith filled, reality based, grace empowered, action oriented, results delivering, salvation focused change agent in the lives of those who participate.

A living church is not a tradition, it’s a life — it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.

The fact is, religion doesn’t save people — Jesus does.

And a living church is a place where people can come to connect with Jesus Christ, be introduced to Jesus Christ, be re-introduced to Jesus Christ, learn about Jesus Christ, establish or re-establish a relationship with Jesus Christ, deepen and explore a more meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ, and have the opportunity to invest their developing relationship with Jesus Christ into other people and so work together to make the world a better place.

So, why am I investing my time, my resources, my efforts, my relationships, my connections, and my creativity in leading a church?

I’m investing in Creation Springs Church because I believe the world will be a better place because of Creation Springs Church.

I’m investing in Creation Springs Church because I believe in our mission:

I’m investing in Creation Springs Church because i believe in our mission and I’m investing in Creation Springs Church because God commanded me to share the good news of salvation with as many people as possible and Creation Springs Church is my opportunity to do just that.

And, I’m investing in Creation Springs Church because God’s grace is sufficient, God’s will is perfect, God’s promises are sure, God’s blessings are abundant, and God’s life is eternal and I want to tell the world about it.

I encourage you to join me.

Join me in having an impact on our generation.

A living church, after all, is not a permanent institution.  They come.  They go.  They rise.  They fall.  They succeed.  They fail.  They are right for a time and a place and then they are reinvented, reconfigured, and re-imagined with every generation.

Creation Springs Church is not an organization that will survive the ages and be spoken about centuries from now.  Creation Springs Church is an opportunity for right here, right now — a relationship, a connection, and a purpose worth your time, your resources, your efforts, your relationships, your connections, and your creative dedication to making the world a better place — to bring the Kingdom of God, to bring the Kingdom of Heaven, to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our generation.

If you are imperfect, flawed, broken, lost, sinful, discouraged, damaged, sick, dysfunctional, indebted, poor, or in any other way less than you want to be, and you believe that there must be a better answer than what you’ve been told, what you’ve heard, or what you’ve experienced — then join me.

Give Creation Springs Church at least one year of your life and I promise you, your life is going to be changed because God is ready to invest His time, resources, effort, relationships, connections, and creativity into your life and Creation Springs Church can be where you make that connection that will forever change your destiny.

Join me and let’s change the world together.

Join me and let’s make a difference.

Join me and I promise you, you will never be the same again.

Every Sunday morning at 10:30AM in Eldersburg, MD I’m sharing the good news that God loves every human being created, that every human being created has the opportunity to embrace their destiny as a child of God with a future and a hope, and that every human being created can experience the goodness, the love, the peace, the joy, the fulfillment, the success, the abundance, the blessings, the favor, and the promises that God has declared over their lives if they will simply believe and accept what God is offering them.

Every Sunday morning I’m believing that God is going to give you a permanent and lasting life beyond your biggest and best dreams.

So join me.

The post Every Sunday Morning first appeared on Steve Simons.

Vulnerability, transparency, honesty, integrity, accountability, and open communication are all ways in which you can remove the barriers between yourself and someone else and get naked in the most fundamental and effective of ways.

If you are going to be successful in business, in romance, in relationships, and in your walk with God — you have to be willing to bring people in and open your dreams, your hopes, your vision, and your life to them.

There is nothing more compelling than a leader who is unafraid to be really, truly, and fully authentic with their people.  In fact, it is the same in any relationship — friendship, parenting, family, colleagues, spouses — the list goes on and on.  Every relationship is better when you are the one who genuinely shows up.

Consider this, if you fake it, obscure it, cover it up, pretend it is some other way, or in any other way embrace hypocrisy and deception over honesty, integrity, and authenticity than not only are you less likely to make an impact or build something of value in the first place, but even if you manage to create something of the result you are looking for, whatever success you may achieve will never fully connect with you or deliver the satisfaction, fulfillment, and emotional returns that God desires so much to give you.

God is not looking for you to put on spiritual shapewear or hide behind a spiritual mask.  God does not ask you to pretend or to misrepresent in any way who you actually are.

God knows you.  God loves you.  And God calls you, commissions you, and challenges you to embrace the destiny that you were created to enjoy.

“Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame” – Genesis 2

It is not an accident that you were created naked.  Everyone is.  Everyone is created with no pretense, no hypocrisy, and no lies of any kind.  Deception and obscurity only come into play when the enemy gains traction on some aspect of your life.  Whether it is a negative experience or a negative choice, breaking the connection between your internal identity and your external persona is not a positive outcome — far from it.

There is a innate desire and a fundamental need within all people to have a unified experience of goodness, love, peace, joy, abundance, favor, and blessings.

Perhaps the greatest psychological traumas that people suffer involve in some way a divide arising between what is presented to the outside world and what is experienced in the mind, heart, and soul of the person traumatized.  The list is long and the damage is real.  Just think, if you are in a beautiful setting, surrounded by revelry and happy people, but you have suffered a loss that no one else knows about and you choose to “put a good face on it” and join the revelry.  The stark contrast between what is going on inside you and the effort to gloss over it serves not to dampen, but rather to amplify the feelings of isolation, sadness, and loss.  Far from removing them, avoidance and pretense actually increase the negative experiences they are intended to address.  Far better then, to accept and acknowledge the truth of the matter and make choices in that context, rather than letting yourself be isolated by your own unwillingness to genuinely be present in your own life.

“Then the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He replied, ‘I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.'” – Genesis 3

There is no guarantee that it is going to be easy when you choose to authentically show up and genuinely communicate with transparency, purpose, and integrity.  Sometimes you are going to be genuinely wrong, honestly mistaken, truly imperfect, authentically flawed, and actually broken.  But the fact is, the only road to healing, restoration, recovery, redemption, and success is through the actual change of the actual reality of who you are, what you are, how you are, where you are, and why you are.

One of the worst pieces of advice in common circulation today is that lying is an essential or at least a necessary part of dating.  That somehow if you misrepresent yourself well enough you will manage to land a partner who will be a great fit for you.  So, let’s put this one to rest — in romance, as in any relationship, the only path to genuine intimacy, deep connection, and lasting meaning is to authentically show up, openly and honestly communicate with integrity and genuinely listen to, interact with, consider, accept, support, invest in, and love the other people in your life.

Let’s put it this way, getting naked without ever taking off a single piece of clothing is the key to accomplishing lasting and meaningful connections with other human beings.  And in the case of dating and marriage you should be fully open, fully vulnerable, fully transparent, fully informed, fully aware of everything there is to know about each other — getting fully naked mentally and emotionally before you ever take the vows of marriage and get naked with each other physically.

Discovering the secret of authentic vulnerability, genuine transparency, and actual intimacy is the foundation on which actual change, genuine relationship, and authentic success is built.

Realizing that God loves you so much that you can get naked — remove all pretense, let go of all hypocrisy, drop the act, stop the lies, clear the obscurity — and stand in the presence of God confident and sure, not of your own righteousness, holiness, perfection, or merit, but confident and sure of God’s favor, God’s goodness, God’s grace, and God’s blessings is perhaps the greatest secret of all.

The enemy would like you to believe that shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, and more are important expressions of faith and reverence when it comes to your relationship with God.  That somehow you should hide your flaws, your wounds, your imperfections, and your character from God or somehow lie your way into heaven.  The absurdity of this claim should be readily apparent.  Not only can’t you hide anything from God, but why would you want to?  God has already provided the solution to every hurt, every harm, every sin, every injury, every evil, every disease, every dysfunction, and every weapon formed against you.  All of them.  God has already declared that He wants you, that He chose you, that He loves you, that He has a mission for you, that He planned you and created you with intention for a purpose, and that you are perfect not because of what you have done, but because of what God can do in you, through you, and because of you.

The power of getting naked through fully embracing integrity, authenticity, transparency, and openness is that through accepting who God created you to be and refusing to be drawn into any of the many lies that the enemy would like you to embrace, you are genuinely, actually able to change reality, connect with other people, and have an eternal impact both in your own life and in the lives of those around you.

The fact is, if you are willing to become who God genuinely created you to be, the secret to success simply becomes the power of showing up.

The post Getting Naked first appeared on Steve Simons.

Selfish.

Is it evil to be selfish?

Certainly selfishness is a characteristic that is frowned upon in early childhood schooling.

You need to be a team player.  You need to love other people.  You need to invest your time and your energy in making the world a better place.  You need to put God first.

But does that mean that you shouldn’t be selfish?  Does that mean that you shouldn’t act in your own self interest?  Does that mean that you shouldn’t love yourself?

When one of the scripture instructors of the day asked Jesus which of all of God’s commandments was the most important, Jesus said,

“The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” – Mark 12

Love your neighbor AS yourself.

To achieve your full potential and live the abundant life that God has planned for you, the first and most important relationship in your life is with God.  Understanding God’s heart, embracing God’s will, following God’s example, fulfilling God’s promises, and experiencing all of God’s many blessings are the keys that lead to fulfillment, peace, satisfaction, success, joy, contentment, and prosperity.

If you choose yourself over a relationship with God, it will blind you to your context, obscure your opportunities, and cloud your vision from seeing the destiny that is possible for you.  So, if by “selfish” you mean that you intend to become your own frame of reference and that your own subjective observations, opinions, and experiences are the only inputs to your decision making, then “selfish” is indeed an obstacle that will stand between you and success.

This is because, only considering yourself, your own perspective, your own desires, your own wants, and your own needs to the exclusion of all other insights, considerations, and contexts is an incredibly limiting position to take.  On the other hand, to the degree that you are able to re-frame your awareness to see and reflect on a more objective view that is inclusive of a greater number of inputs beyond just your own contributions, to that same degree you will be able to increase your influence, your impact, and your success.

That said, in common usage “selfish” is used to mean a far broader range of beliefs and behaviors than simply the fully exclusive consideration of yourself as the only player of value in your context and experience.  So, while this narrow definition of “selfish” can be extremely destructive of success, and leads to all manner of dysfunctional choices and experiences, the fact is that much of what is commonly believed or identified to be selfish is actually good, useful, and essential to a successful life.

Love God with everything you are, everything you have, and everything you do.  And love your neighbor AS yourself.

AS yourself.

Jesus is saying to love yourself, care for yourself, invest in yourself, believe in yourself, provide for yourself — renew, refresh, recharge yourself — be good to yourself, just like you would be good to someone else.

No shame.

No guilt.

No fear.

No hesitation.

No condemnation.

Be good to yourself.  Love yourself.  Just like God loves you.

Love yourself, just like you love other people.

Not more. Not less.

In balance, in proportion, organically, regularly, with commitment and purpose, intention and design — love yourself.

Is it “selfish” to get enough sleep?  Is it “selfish” to eat good food?  Is it “selfish” to take time for yourself to renew and recharge?  Is it “selfish” to exercise and be fit or do what it takes to be healthy?  Is it “selfish” to invest in education for yourself?  The list goes on and on and on.  And the answer to all of these queries is “No!”. Loving yourself like God loves you is a key aspect of saying “Yes!” to God’s will for your life.

It is time to boldly declare that God loves you.

It is time to boldly declare that God believes in you.

It is time to boldly declare that God is investing in you and blessing you and providing for you and caring for you and healing you and restoring you and renewing, refreshing, and recharging you every step of the way.

Let go of the secret shame.  Let go of the creeping guilt.  Let go of the subliminal fear and doubt.  Reject self loathing, self abuse, self hatred, and self doubt.  Refuse to accept the condemnations and accusations of any who would tell you that you are without value, worthless, unimportant, nonessential, or in any way not worthy of God’s goodness and all of the blessings that God has promised for you!

God is good all the time.

God is good to you all the time.

If you are going to follow in God’s footsteps, embrace God’s will, and experience the life that God has in store for you — you have to be good to you too!

It is God’s desire, God’s passionate pursuit, God’s intentional purpose, and God’s eternal mission to love and to bless every human being created.  To reject or refuse to receive God’s love and God’s blessings for you is to reject God and the life that God is offering you, which is a life of fulfillment, peace, and joy.

The way God works is that God finds people who are willing to receive the blessings He offers and then through them He spreads the blessings to others who are not yet ready or willing to accept them directly.  Then, as they realize the source and become willing to receive them directly, the blessings multiply to reach more still, and so on.  That is why, when God called Abram to become Abraham and be the father of a great nation, God said,

“Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” – Genesis 12

If you want to be a blessing to others, you first must receive the blessing yourself.  That is why when Jesus commissioned the apostles not only did He say,

“Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons.” – Matthew 10

He followed it up by saying,

Give as freely as you have received!” – Matthew 10

You can’t give what you don’t have.  If you don’t receive God’s love, experience God’s goodness, and rejoice in all of the blessings that God provides, you won’t be able to share them with others.

That is why Jesus said that your first priority should be to have a relationship with God, but then second and equal to that priority is to have relationships with others based on the relationship that you have with God — loving them just like God loves you and you love yourself, and so introducing them to the goodness, the grace, the mercy, the abundance, the healing, the peace, and the joy that God has already given you and that you have already received for yourself.  It’s like God said to Abraham,

“I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” – Genesis 12

The post Renew. Refresh. Recharge. first appeared on Steve Simons.

Life is short.

Too short to waste time.

Too short to hate.

Too short to live with regret.

Too short to give up.

Too short to give in.

Too short to accept defeat.

Too short to spend it pursing things that don’t last.

Too short to resist, reject, or obstruct the God given destiny that you have been given.

Life is short.  So live well.

God’s promises are eternal.

God’s blessings last forever.

God’s love has no end.

God’s favor is boundless.

God’s goodness is limitless.

The life that God has in store for you is not short because God is offering you a life that will last forever.

Jesus conquered sin and death.

Your life on this earth is short, but your life in Christ is eternal.

God designed it this way to improve both heaven and earth.

God didn’t want people to give up, give in, accept defeat, live with regret, and waste time pursuing things that have no eternal value, so life is short.  But God also wanted people to embrace the opportunity to change, develop, evolve, improve, and receive more and more of the goodness, the abundance, the favor, the life, the peace, the joy, the fulfillment, the success, and the blessings that He has to offer and so He made eternal life possible.

And the fact is, being saved means exchanging your finite, limited, constrained, flawed, and terminal existence for the eternal life that God has in store for you.

In the gospel according to Luke in the Bible, Jesus’ very first message that launched His public ministry was delivered at a synagogue in Galilee, in the town of Nazareth where he had grown up as a boy.  He started by reading from the prophet Isaiah,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come” – Luke 4 (quoting Isaiah 61).

And then, after reading this quote Jesus said,

“The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” – Luke 4

Life is short.  Life is hard.  You will face challenges and obstacles, hard times and opposition.  The enemy will seek to stop you in your tracks and turn you back from discovering everything that God is offering you.  The powers of darkness, disease, and death will seek to convince you that there is nothing more than right here, right now and it is rapidly coming to a close because they have already won the battle and the field is theirs.

It can be easy to listen to the many prophets of doom, disaster, fear, and violence and think that hope, faith, love, and truth are in retreat or are no where to be found.  And yet, God is speaking into your life right now telling you that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.

“I don’t see it God.  I’m looking around and all I see is cancer, and AIDS, and drug abuse, and violence, and corruption! Maybe there is a heaven somewhere, but life down here on earth doesn’t seem to be improving!”

The time of God’s favor has come.  Life is short.  Life is too short to spend it depressed, hopeless, defeated, and confused.

God designed you with purpose.  God commissioned you specifically to bring value into this world.  God planned you individually to make a difference right where you are, when you are, and how you are because of who you are and what you are.

You are a child of God.  You are the chosen.  You are the blessed, the empowered, the inspired, the strong.  You are the well able, the prepared, the equipped, the connected.

God wants you to realize that the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because God has anointed you to bring Good News to the poor.  God has sent you to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of God’s favor has come.

This is the truth.  This is the fact.  This is reality.

You can deny it.  You can reject it.  You can ignore it.  But you can’t change it.

You were born on purpose for a purpose and you have a mission and calling that no other person living now can accomplish.

Life is short.  Don’t wait any longer.

It’s time to start investing for eternal returns.  It’s time to start receiving an eternal life.  It’s time to start experiencing eternal blessings.  It’s time to start living in the eternal favor of God.

It’s like Jesus said,

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you have seen.  I tell you, many prophets and kings longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it.  And they longed to hear what you hear, they didn’t hear it” – Luke 10

Don’t wait any longer.  Don’t wait for more evidence.  Don’t wait for more proof.  Don’t wait for a miracle someday, somewhere when God is offering you the miracle right here, right now.

Just pray with me,

“Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. Come into my heart.  I accept that you died for me and paid the price to redeem me from my sins, and so I make you my God and Savior.  Jesus, I choose you.”

If you prayed that prayer, you were born again.  The greatest miracle of life is happening right here, right now.  You are free.  You have a hope and a future.  You have eternal life in Jesus Christ.  What has come before no longer defines you.  What happened yesterday does not determine your tomorrow.  You are no longer living in the dark, because you have just turned on the light of life.  So, get in a good Bible based church and keep Jesus first place, because He is going to take you places beyond your biggest and best dreams.

The post Life is Short. So Live Well. first appeared on Steve Simons.

Honor is more than respect.

Honor is more than an emotion of reverence or an acknowledgement and appreciation of services rendered.

Honor is acting on an awareness of what someone is doing or has done by considering and meeting their needs in response to their service rendered.

And so, honor is not just attending the victory parade and pinning a medal on the chest of a warrior, it is also helping them find a job, getting them a gym membership, investing with them to start a business, structuring financing such that they can afford a house, getting them the medical attention they need for their wounds (both physical and psychological), and supporting them in whatever way possible just as they were willing to support, defend, and even give their lives to support you.

Honor is more than recompense.  It is more than trying to pay someone back for what they have provided for you.  Honor is the recognition that you cannot pay someone back for what they have offered you, but you can provide them with something of meaning and value that will demonstrate your love and commitment to them in response to the love and commitment they have shown for you.

Soldiers, sailors, airmen (and women), marines, coast guard, police, first responders, emergency personnel, and every citizen who steps up to serve others at risk to themselves when the need arises.  It is essential that our gratitude to these servants and service people is more than silence, more than apathy, more than hopes and good wishes, more than prayers and distant respect.  It is for those who are served to serve and to honor those who serve.

Jesus said,

“The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – Matthew 23

So, as you celebrate Memorial Day this year, consider that the greatest among us are those who serve and consider what you can do to serve them.

It’s like Jesus said,

“You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Matthew 20

Honoring those who are willing to put their lives on the line to protect and to serve others, honoring those who make freedom and liberty possible and defend our country against all threats foreign and domestic, honoring those who have given and will give their lives in the service of their country, honoring those who heal, rescue, and support others in the toughest situations — honoring all those who serve is one of the greatest expressions of patriotism and love of our country that most of us will ever have the opportunity to give.

So, take time to thank our veterans, appreciate and acknowledge what they have done for you, and most importantly start developing an awareness of what you can do for them.  Whether it is working to reform the office of veterans affairs to better meet their needs in a timely and effective fashion, or it is volunteering time for one of the many organizations that support our troops, or it is donating money to organizations that help veterans succeed in life after their tours of duty.  Whatever you are called and capable of doing, it is in meeting the needs and supporting the lives of those who serve that you can best express and give them the honor they have earned.

I would like to end this week with the lyrics of “America, The Beautiful”, which was written by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893 after visiting Pike’s Peak in Colorado Springs.  Struck by the grandeur and beauty of “the sea-like expanse of fertile country . . . under those ample skies,” she started the poem which would become the lyrics to one of America’s most enduring hymns.  I think the final two verses best capture the honor owed to all who have served and given their lives so that we might live in peace, prosperity, and freedom.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

O beautiful for spacious skies,

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,

O beautiful for heroes proved

O beautiful for patriot dream

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