Rainmaker of Liberty

(A Veteran's Day Tribute)

"Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." - Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

This old veteran, old warrior (84), was chosen by God, not only for salvation, but to see the world... a world for which men have fought and died.

Ancient pagans as well as terrorists of the 21st century, axis powers of evil (Nazi and Asian Armies of WW2), and even the progressive Atheist in America, all think that the smoke from warfare, the sounds from warfare, have put so much smoke in God's eyes that he cannot see the horrors of war, that he has not turned up his hearing aid so he can hear the horrors of war. Men have always lived in a world where breeds of badness move in. Explaining the horrors of war is like explaining red to someone who is colorblind. And yet, we expect our young, sensitive children to return from war unscathed after having seen their best friends picked up piece by piece on the battlefield. There are more suicides among veterans than any other group of Americans. Across America, more people die from suicide than from car crashes... most of these are veterans. In the state of Oregon, where suicide is legal, over 1,000 people buy the suicide packets of prescription drugs each year. The suicide promotion campaign in America is called "Compassionate Choices".

Studying the history of wars, I have found that most start because people and nations are trapped by acceptance, sometimes without question, of the value system of others. In warfare, we invest in the enemy, strengths which they do not possess: 

16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. - Isaiah 59:16 King James Version (KJV)

In warfare, as in daily life, we often forget the real, thinking only of appearance. Pride is the beginning of every sin, nation or individual. Satan laughs when we plan, trembles when we pray. As we find in this marvelous verse Isaiah 59:16, God must "WONDER" why mankind, especially believing Christians, do not use the awesome power of prayer. All of my long life, I have heard people talk about "they and us". We are so afraid of the "theys" of this world. The "theys" are the tears which God sowed amongst the wheat... the weeds, destructive sinful forces of the world. I still remember the day my Daddy showed me the root structure of a weed... how it would choke the good plant. Many of us saw the destruction of weeds-munitions of warfare. AND, many, those who did not give the supreme sacrifice, came back to live with warfare. 

My Daddy's brother, called to the war in WW2, left a young wife on their farm. I can still see she and her younger sister hitching up the mules, bringing in the harvest; corn, beans, cotton. He was gone to war, there was no one else to do it. After the war, as well as while he was in the war, she worked in a hospital. Coming home, he, a disabled veteran, laying at home, she would take her lunch hour from the hospital and go home to feed him... get him to the bathroom etc.

To the uninitiated, everything is obscure, even war, even the Democratic way of life. In one of Stalin's Five Year Plans, Joseph Stalin, who slaughtered 50 Million fellow Russians to establish Communism, was at a Farmer's house on one of his trips through Russia, the farmer complained of controls, government regulations. Stalin said to the farmer, "Bring me one of your chickens." He took the chicken, jerking out all the chicken's feathers, then threw the chicken on the floor. The dazed-bloody chicken began to wobble around. Stalin said to the farmer, "Watch." In his hands, Stalin offered the chicken some grains of corn. The chicken gratefully ate the corn from Stalin's hand. The Russians, Chinese, Cubans, others, have fought for this way of life! This writer was asked to speak at an old veteran's funeral, I had known this truck driver for many years, a committed Christian, who left Christian tracts, a printed Christian message of salvation, across the Nation. The funeral was at Saint's Delight Holiness Church, a very large white clapboard church in a tremendous grove of oak trees out in the country. The church and the yard were filled with a tremendous crowd. I remember saying, unlike the person in the Jefferson Starship song, popular on the radio at that time, "This fine veteran knew from where he came, what he was fighting for in the south pacific."

When our Blessed Lord was laid in a cold, dark tomb, the enemy rolled a great stone and placed a seal. They paid soldiers with money to guard, making sure he would not escape. You see, often unbelievers know more than believers. His disciples, even his friends, were surprised at his resurrection... that first Easter morning. Even after the large sums of money paid the guards, pessimists-Atheists have said that the guards were asleep, certain death awaited any Roman soldier who slept while on guard duty. 

Many of us remember how little soldiers were paid in historic wars. Many of us remember the "pounding" of preachers (church-members bringing food for the pastor). Defending our Christian-Democratic way of life today, too many preachers on the golf courses, too many warriors using robots... and we think we will stay free. God's greatest gift, our redemption through his son, REAL liberty.

Living close to my own beach house (Wrightsville Beach, NC), my accountant and his wife were dog-sitting for his sister in their beach home. My accountant, graduate of the Naval Academy, retired naval officer, one of the finest men I have ever known. The dog acted up, Jane took the dog outside, a distraught woman ran down their pier. A woman had fallen into the sound near the ocean from their boat. My accountant, Michael Brown, grabbed his flashlight, at age 67, ran down to his kayak and went paddling out into the water, searching. Law enforcement rescuers had not arrived. The tide was moving out. Michael, almost totally deaf, with his flashlight, spotted the floating body. He could not get her into his kayak, but jumped in the water and swum to the shore with her. After the rescuers got there, she was revived and is still alive. GOOD NEWS, THERE ARE STILL REAL MEN WHO MAKE REAL DECISIONS.