Each year, on the third Saturday in May, the nation expresses appreciation
and gratitude to our men and women in uniform. They are our Armed Forces,
America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coastguardsmen.

An interesting tidbit from Chaplain (Lt Col) Dwight Johnson - stationed at
Ft Meade via Col Joseph L. Shaefer, ACC AXO-ID MA, Dated: 29 Jul 1999.

I was one of more than 300 runners in the NSA Armed Forces Week 5K run (Ft.
Meade, MD). It was pretty crowded at the start, but things thinned out
after
about five minutes or so, and I took my bearings. Perhaps 200 yards ahead
of
me was a group of maybe 8 Marines or so who were obviously running
together.
I decided that a good goal would be to beat them, which seemed reasonable,
as I am a macho Air Force Chaplain and they were only a bunch of United
States Marines. I kept them in sight for the next couple of miles, but the
longer the race went on, the younger those guys got. It became apparent to
me in the last half mile that I was not going to catch them, and I resigned
myself to finishing well behind them.

Then I noticed that one of their number was struggling and was gradually
dropping off the pace. I panted out a word of encouragement as I caught him
and realized that he was not about to give up.
Within 100 yards of the finish line I saw a strange sight. The entire group
of Marines made a U-turn in the road and was running back towards me. As
they ran past me I noted their well-chiselled muscles and the determined
set
of their jaws. I glanced over my shoulder in time to see them rally around
their buddy to provide the emotional support of the team so that they could
all finish together. I was impressed. No way would they leave a struggling
comrade behind.

As I entered the finishing chute I murmured a prayer. "I'm glad those guys
are on our side." And so it was that I learned a theological truth from the
U.S. Marines that is as vivid as any my seminary professors ever taught.
"If
anyone sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of
God be in him? Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in
truth." (1 John 3:17,18)

I witnessed "a few good men" in action. They reminded me of the strength of
being a team, and that words without actions are pretty much useless.
Thanks, Marines.

Thanks to WITandWISDOM(tm) - May 19, 2000 subscribe-wit-wisdom@xc.org

Didn't know where else to put this.

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Is what you're living for worth Christ dying for?

Gerry B.