A reminder on Veterans Day 2022…
I awoke on Veterans Day 2022 with a reminder of something revealed to me long before I would figure out what it meant. The following is an accounting of God’s answers to concerns I took to him in prayer:
Alarm over rhetoric coming from a leader…
I had long been alarmed at the rhetoric coming from a candidate for president in 2016. This rhetoric, I feared, would lead to harm for individuals toward whom it was aimed and for America. God had already told me that this person ‘does not need votes, he needs help’; yet here he was on the brink of becoming President of the United States of America.
It was July 2016, and I was watching a Lieutenant General deliver remarks at the Republican National Convention. There was little response to his fearmongering, America-first remarks. The audience, as though sensing his floundering, frequently started chants, “USA, USA, USA.” When he mentioned Hillary Clinton, the audience drowned him out with “Lock her up. Lock her up.” He encouraged it. It was his call to “Wake up, America” that set off alarm bells. This Lieutenant General’s meaning for a wake-up call was so different from God’s call to “Wake up, America! Reconcile!”. Standing there in uniform representing the military of the United States while promoting division, negativism, isolationism, and other far-right ideas under the guise of religion just didn’t fit God’s call for reconciliation. I thought of the praise and honors being heaped upon him and the one he had chosen to support, and my heart was filled with sadness.
God’s answer to my concerns…
When I took my concerns to God, here is what I heard, “Tell them that they should be careful to whom they bestow honor unless they are prepared to be disappointed. An honor, an award, a pardon, or a win on earth might not be considered an honor, award, pardon, or win by Heavenly standards.”
He continued, “There will be veterans of a war not fought with guns. There will be veterans of wars fought with guns who will do harm to the very nation they fought to protect.”
Along comes COVID in late 2019 and early 2020…
For over 3 years, I wondered what God meant by his affirmation that there would be veterans of a war not fought with guns. Then along came COVID. It proved to be what God had foretold. There were veterans of the war on COVID who fought without guns. They were the doctors, nurses, front line workers — such as, teachers and other school personnel, EMTs, paramedics, fire and police personnel, key workers needed to keep the country’s business running–, and the list could go on and on and on, just as the war on COVID has gone on and on and on.
Far too many of these veterans paid the ultimate price during this war not fought with guns.
About honors, awards, pardons, and wins…
Throughout this COVID war we have seen those who chose not to listen to God’s charges to ‘Take care of the earth and its inhabitants,” and “Thou shalt not kill.” They saw that people were dying because of their words and actions of rejections of life-saving safety measures such as masks, isolation, and vaccines. They selfishly and foolishly chose ‘my way’ over ‘God’s Way’. They were willing to get their way through false promises, lies, and even use of violence. Those who caused the problems and deaths have been given awards, honors, pardons, and wins. Some have been labeled great patriots.
There have also been those who chose throughout this COVID war to listen to God’s charges to “Take care of the earth and its inhabitants,” and “Thou shalt not kill.” They bravely chose ‘God’s way” over ‘Man’s way’ and donned the masks, isolated as much as possible, and stepped up for vaccines when they became available. There was a sigh of relief when the vaccines became available for the youth and children. They listened to truths and rejected violence as a way to gain wins. For their actions, they have received threats and disdain.
And God repeats…
“Tell them that they should be careful to whom they bestow honor unless they are prepared to be disappointed. An honor, an award, a pardon, or a win on earth might not be considered an honor, award, pardon, or win by Heavenly standards.”
And he adds…
“I am intervening to save lives. “Wake up, America! Reconcile!”
God wants you to know…
He does not force you to yield to his ways. He gives you a choice. You have until you draw your last earthly breath to accept his ways. However, you do not know when your last earthly breath will be and when your next breath will be in eternal- life time. The choice must be made before that last breath, and you must have evidence of meaning that choice by what is embedded in your heart.
UPCOMING: Recognizing Disciples at work in today’s world