Last Tuesday, March 19, 2013 marked the 10th anniversary of the beginning of what came to be know as "Operation Iraqi Freedom," or as more commonly referred to as the "war in Iraq." Many of our soldiers served honorably in that effort and many of them perished while doing so. They rightly deserve to be remembered and honored for their service to our country. I'd like to direct your thoughts this morning to another "operation." It also had a name and I'm sure that many of you "older folks" will recall it, perhaps even in a personal way. I'm referring to what was entitled "Operation Homecoming" that mostly took place during the month of March, 1973. I'd like to build our editorial lesson around that very moving event that occurred 40 years ago and I appreciate your consideration of these thoughts.
In March of '73 I was working the "graveyard" shift in what's now called the CSI detail of the San Bernardino Police Dept. There was a small break room near my desk and it contained a small black & white TV set. I can vividly recall watching the C-141 airplanes from our own Norton AFB flying into Hanoi, North Vietnam and returning with the POWs that had been housed in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison, many for 7-8 years. Almost 600 of them.
I recall how emotionally moved I was when I watched them land, first in the Philippines, and then in the United States. To see the ambulatory feebly walk off the plane and salute those there to meet them and then to watch many of them having to be carried off on stretchers. As I now think about it, there must have been some sort of allergy going around about that time because my eyes kept watering.
The other day I was reading the personal account of one of those prisoners who was an Army doctor captured in 1967 and survived to take part in "Operation Homecoming." One of the things he mentioned struck me as a great lead-in to a spiritual lesson and I'm going to use that statement just for that purpose here.
Early on in his captivity he was being interrogated by a North Vietnamese officer who produced a tape recorder and asked him if he would make a statement against the war. The doctor replied that he would "rather die" than to speak against his country. It's his captor's reply to that statement that becomes my thought basis for this lesson. His captor said, "You will find dying is very easy. Living, living is the difficult thing." The doctor found those words to be oh so true for the next six years.
How I'm going to relate the doctor's experience to our lesson is to look for a few moments at the Apostle Paul who was also a prisoner several times and died as such. I think that, in a way, Paul and our doctor had some things in common.
The doctor said that, on many occasions, he was ready to die and be relieved from his suffering, but he felt a duty to his fellow prisoners. To be there for them and help them as best he could. I think that we can see Paul sort of in that same predicament.
In Philippians 1, verses 20-24, we see Paul facing a real dilemma, don't we? I'm just going to paraphrase his words here and here's what I understand him to be saying. It's like he's questioning his own thinking. As if he's mulling it over in his mind - "to live or die." Which would be best?
It seems that, in his reasoning, he came to this conclusion: that if "alive" he could do more for the cause of Christ. If he "died" he says that would be "far better" for him. He judged dying to be "gain." But, then he concludes that being "alive" was better, more helpful for others and for Christ. He placed his duty to Christ and others above what he felt would be better for himself.
Did he suffer for this decision? I invite you to read 2Cor. 11:23-28 and when you do I think you'll easily see why he was ready to die. Why he saw his death and thereby "to be with Christ" as being "gain." (Phil. 1:21 & 23)
I doubt seriously that any of us have suffered, or will suffer, in either the amount or methods that Paul and our prisoner of war did. But, we all suffer in some ways, don't we? I have no problem understanding the reasoning of either the doctor or Paul. I've known faithful Christians who have suffered greatly from some dread disease who prayed for the Lord to "take them." They definitely saw their death as being a "gain."
And that's not hard to understand either when you look at what lies ahead eternally for the faithful. They're going to a place where there are no problems of any kind. No evil people to bother them. No sickness or disease to have to deal with because the "Tree of Life" is there for the "healing of the nations." They will live forever in a place more beautiful than the words of man can describe. Plus, it will be forever day there. As the old hymn says "No night there." (Rev. 21 & 22)
In our closing thought today, let me just scripturally draw you a picture that so graphically shows us the two faces of eternity. In Rev. 9:1-6 we're given a look into the "bottomless pit" and the "torment" within that location. We also see there that we're looking at what's happening to those who do not have "the seal of God on their foreheads."
But, I want you to especially take note of what is said about these tormented ones in verse 6: "In those days (at that time) people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them." (NLT)
Now let's look at the other side of this picture of eternity, all the while remembering what befalls us here as we live our earthly lives and as we stay faithful through it all. Turn your Bibles to Rev. 14:12-13 and read these words with me: "This means that God's holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying His commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them." (NLT)
What's our key thought as we close? Remain faithful to our duties as Christians, through whatever the world throws at us and, as our examples today, the POW and the Apostle Paul, we too will be delivered. There will one day be our own personal "Operation Homecoming." Only it will be to our heavenly home.
Ron Covey
No comments:
Post a Comment