Happy Birthday, United States Marines!

Note: I wrote this a few years ago and traditionally repost it each November 10.

Edward Schiffmann Wear joined the United States Marines during World War II and was sent to the Pacific Theater. He was the brother of Irene Wear – my grandmother. He died during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The story is told in my family that as he died, he was praying the Lord’s Prayer with a chaplain.

Achieving the rank of Corporal in the 9^th Marines Regiment, my great uncle answered the call of his country to defend her freedom against an aggressor nation.

He was one of the 6,812 Americans killed or missing on Iwo Jima.

A man I never met who died long ago and far away continues to have a tremendous impact on my life. My mother still talks about him to this day. She has been sharing stories of her memories of him with me the last couple of days. Yet, I still hardly know anything about him. I don’t know what his favorite food was. I don’t know what he thought of being the youngest to three sisters. I don’t know how he felt about living in the city of Chicago but spending his summers on Long Lake.

In spite of this I still feel tremendously proud, and humbled at the same time, that I am part of his family.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the most important battles in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. It has become iconic of the sacrifice, determination and leadership that United States Marines personify in today’s world.

Called by some the “Greatest Generation,” most of the men and women who answered their country’s call to fight in World War II did so not for glory or fame, but to do a job that needed to be done. They came from all walks of life. Some, like my great uncle, from humble beginnings. Many, again like my great uncle, went to war never to return to the United States alive.

But as far as I am concerned, they did not die in vain. They died, in part, for me. They died for you and for all Americans as well as for all peace- and freedom-loving people around the world. They made the ultimate sacrifice so that I could be free to worship, work, play, and live as I choose.

In this way, they are a lot like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ laid down His life so that others – the world, in fact – could be free from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Jesus Christ personifies the United States Marines motto – Semper Fidelis – “Always Faithful.”

United States Marines have been protecting these freedoms longer than there has been a United States. Formed on November 10, 1775 in Philadelphia, men and women who served as U.S. Marines have been making sure that the United States is protected from those who would take our freedom away.

Happy Birthday, United States Marines. May God always bless and protect you as you are always faithful to corps and country.

Where the Rubber Hits the Road

“What do you want to talk about?”

In my experience, that’s the way many Bible studies start. A group of people get together – men or women or couples or youth – and they first decide what topic they want to tackle.

Marriage. Vocation. Sex. Bullying. Leadership. Innovation. Success. The topic list is virtually endless.

But here’s what I’m thinking. Even though life is full of topics, that shouldn’t be the focus of a Bible study that I’m leading or participating in.

The focus should be on the Bible. The focus should be the Word of God. Ultimately, the focus should be on the Word of God – Jesus Christ.

I want to learn how to be a successful leader. I want to be able to teach my sons how to respond to bullying. I want young people to know the proper place sex has in their lives. I want my marriage to continue to be stronger and even grow stronger.

So I read books and watch videos and attend seminars and symposiums.

All of this is well and good.

But where the gumme hits the strasse (“the rubber hits the road”) is the Bible.

To truly grow as a Christian, to truly develop as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I need to be immersed in the Bible.

I recently finished reading Start with Why by Simon Sinek. I first heard of it after watching a short video called How Great Leaders Inspire Action. Excellent video and excellent book. I learned A LOT from both and highly recommend both. They can teach you so much about being a leader, being an innovator, leading a company, business, and even a church.

But while it is an insightful book and video, it is also just a topic. It is just a tool that can be used to become or be a better leader, innovator, businessmen, church council member, etc.

What I’m getting at is that tools only get you so far in being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

As a disciple, I want to have as many tools in my tool box as I can get.

But without the Bible, I’ll just have a cluttered tool box.

But with the Bible, there’s practically no limit to where I can go using those tools as a disciple of Christ.

The reason this is so is because the Word of God, the Bible, is powerful.

Psalm 29:4 says, “The voice of the Lord is powerful.” Through the Word God created the universe. Through the Word God redeemed sinners. Through the Word God will re-created a new heaven and a new earth.

The Bible. That’s where all topics, all tools, get their power. Start with the Word and there’s no telling how powerful God will make you in this world!

Character Building: Wisdom

“A word to the wise….”

I wish I had more wisdom. Actually, what I wish for more is that I had the wisdom I do now when I was 18 years old. Now that would have been extremely helpful.

But, alas, wisdom comes with age and experience. (As does using the word “alas,” apparently.)

Speaking of age, as of March 15, I will be 17,532 days old. I wondering how many of those days saw me grow a little wiser than I was the previous day.

Wisdom is more than just being smart. In some ways, I’m very smart (I think). But “wisdom” is using smarts on a regular basis in what we say and do.

Wisdom is most evident in what a person says, or doesn’t say.

Abraham Lincoln – considered by many to be a wise man – once said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

To attain wisdom, what we say or don’t say is the key. Knowing what to say or not to say – and when to say it or not say it – comes from the school of experience. This will also be a sign of maturity.

In this age of TGIF (Twitter-Google-iPhone-Facebook) the signs of maturity, experience and wisdom are seldom seen. The ability to virtually immediately reveal publically how we feel and what we think is free for everyone in our culture. But that we can doesn’t mean we should.

But why is this important? Why is this part of a series on Character Building?

Wisdom brings together all the other parts of character building: humility, integrity, honesty, courage and faithfulness. All of these are excellent qualities to have. But they are not to be hoarded. As a Christian, I believe I am called by God in Christ Jesus to share these qualities. Wisdom is the way to do this most effectively.

My thanks to Dr. Leonard Sweet for his insights on TGIF culture, in his book “Viral.”

Character Building: Faithfulness

I want to have faithfulness to my God – and I have that through the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God and the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

I strive to remain faithful to my wife – and have been for over 22 years.

I live with faithfulness to my three sons, being a father to them as God is a Father to me.

How do you live with faithfulness? One way that I have found is by learning from those who have been faithful in the past.

There has been at least 5000 years worth of men and women who have been faithful from whom we can learn faithfulness.

The Bible says

…[They], through faith, conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. – Hebrews 11:33-34

I’ve often wondered what it must have been like for men like my grandfather to return home from the war. I can imagine if felt like they were in the army forever, fighting forever, sleeping in the heat or cold and mud forever.

But by 1949 my grandfather had been home longer than he had been away. He would live another forty years! He would be a faithful husband and father and grandfather until his death in the late 80’s. I wish I could have known him better.

I recently watched the last episode of “Band of Brothers.” At the end the actor Daniel Lewis performs a voice-over that details what each of the men did after the war. When he got to Frank Perconte, a tear came to my eye. Perconte was from Chicago. And when he came home from the war, he became a mailman.

Just like my grandfather.

It is men like Perconte, Dick Winters, Shifty Powers, and my grandfather, that inspire me the most to be the man I try to be today.

They did extraordinary things a long time ago, then became regular men living regular lives.

But there was nothing regular about them, really.

They were called by their country to defend it from enemies without. They were faithful to their country.

Then they came home and faced being faithful to their families, their friends, and, for many of them, to God.

I wonder if it was hard to remain faithful after a war. I’m thinking about those who endure a war – whether it is a year or two or four or more.

I can imagine that someone who was in a war for two years would then take at least two years after it ends to recover. But how does one remain faithful when you live more of life in peacetime than you did in fighting a war?

It seems the best thing to do is to find someone who is doing that or has done that. Those who lived in the generations before us can teach us a lot about this. But we have to take the time to learn these lessons.

Because there will come a time when we are the generation someone is going to learn from.

A Christian remains faithful through the power of the Holy Spirit working through Word and Sacrament.

I start there, learning how to be faithful to my God. I will then have the means to live a life of faithfulness to my wife and children and, if called upon, to the next generation.

Character Building: Courage

I recently asked myself, “Do I have courage?”

It depends, I guess. If by “courage” you mean would I willingly jump out of a perfectly good airplane into combat? Then I’m pretty sure the answer is “no.”

But if by “courage” you mean would I confront my friend and brother when he’s hurt my feelings? I found out just this morning that the answer is yes. My feelings were hurt yesterday and I struggled all day and night about it. I was faced with two choices. Do I let it go? Or do I talk to him about it? Oh, yes, there are more choices – like, do I talk to someone else about what happened? Or, I could have posted a rant on facebook™. But these are not my choices and never entered my mind to do those things. I had the courage to confront my friend. I admit, I was uncomfortable, but I knew that our friendship needed this confrontation and our friendship would survive this confrontation. I was uncomfortable. I was scared. But that’s what courage is, right? It takes courage to do the right thing even if you are scared.

It worked out well, by the way. Things were tense for a bit, but it was good to talk directly to each other and begin the process of reconciliation.

John Wayne once said, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

Just as integrity is doing the right thing even when the wrong thing is easier, courage is doing the right thing even when it scares you.

Courage is a character trait that is sought after by many people. Joe Banks, in the movie Joe vs. the Volcano, when asked what interests him, replied “Courage! Courage interests me!” He speaks for a lot of men and women, I think.

It takes courage to do a lot of things. It takes courage to ask someone to marry you. It takes courage to take a new job in a far away city. It takes courage to go back to school to learn a new profession. It takes courage to say goodbye. It takes courage to say hello.

How do we get courage? I start by looking for people who model courage. It could be a war veteran. It could be a police officer or firefighter. It could a man who is taking care of his wife during a debilitating illness. It could even be a character in a favorite story.

Find someone who has been in the same or similar place you are and learn how they got through it successfully. Try to do the same or similar thing, as the situation warrants.

The reason that we should have courage and act courageously is because the stakes are high, as are the rewards.

When I act with courage (again, remember it is not the same as acting without fear), I know that someone is watching me, waiting to see how I get through it. It could be my wife or sons or people that I work with. I might be the model they need to learn how to have courage.

The rewards are great, as well. Probably the most famous courageous man in history was Joshua, the son of Nun.

After forty years working as Moses’ assistant, he was called upon to succeed Moses. He was eighty years old, just as Moses was when he became leader of Israel. This is what God said to Joshua:

“Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:6-9 ESV)

God’s Word will give me the power to be courageous. Meditating on it, doing what it says, this will give me courage and bring me “good success.”

But there was another Joshua who epitomizes courage. He wasn’t known as “Joshua” but rather “Jesus.”

Jesus showed great courage in given up his life to save all people.

“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It wasn't easy but he felt it was the the right thing to do. And the result was that those who believe in him will never die but have everlasting life.

This gives me the courage to meet every challenge, every obstacle, every situation head-on! Jesus took my sin away. He gave me his righteousness.

And he promised that he will be with me wherever I go!

That gives me great courage!

Character Building: Honesty

I talked about integrity as my favorite characteristic last time. Another characteristic that goes hand-in-hand with integrity is “honesty.”

To my humiliation, honesty was the hardest of the characteristics for me to muster when I was younger. I didn’t have to lie about myself and what I did or didn’t do, but I did.

I think it was because I was not happy with who I was. I was a somewhat overweight, shy, kid. I found it hard to make a lot of friends. But there I go again, not being completely honest! I have been blessed with a number of great, close, committed friends in my life. A handful of those I still count as my dearest friends. They had the insight to see through the tales I told of myself and love me anyway! Truly, they imitated God in this way.

So, to be honest, I felt like I couldn’t make friends unless I became someone I wasn’t. So I would invite stories about myself, thinking my real life was boring or ordinary. As I pause to look back over my life, it really has been anything but ordinary! But I couldn’t see the truth of that at the time.

As I strive to be a man of integrity, I know that honesty is going to have to be a huge part of this goal.

No more lies. No more dishonesty. I know (now) that lies catch up with you eventually. No matter how vociferous the denial, the truth always comes out in the end. Sometimes it is a relief. Because it is true that it is easier on the brain to tell the truth – because you don’t have to remember anything when you tell the truth! But sometimes when the truth comes to light, it is devastating. “I’m not hurting anyone but myself” is rarely – if ever – true, especially when being dishonest.

Now, having said “no more lies” I think something needs to be said about prudence and “speaking the truth in love.”

Can I be honest when my wife asks me “do these pants make my butt look fat?” (And for the record, she never asks me this question – it’s just a hypothetical here.) What if they really do? It wouldn’t be prudent to tell her that. For one reason, it would hurt her feelings. Another reason, she would probably hurt me!

While honesty is always the best policy, it is also important to remember that God’s Word tells that should speak the truth “in love” (Ephesians 4:15). I realize my hypothetical situation is wrought with danger. I realize that it would just be easier to “tell a white lie” in this situation. It will also spare my wife’s feelings (and my head). But remember “integrity”? It can be defined as “doing the right thing even when doing the wrong thing is easier.”

In situations like my hypothetical, it is going to take some effort to avoid hurting someone’s feelings while, at the same time, speaking the truth. Love has so much to do with it. How I talk to my wife – to anyone, really – should be deeply rooted in my relationship with them and with God. When I overlook that particular truth, then it will be very hard to speak the truth in love.

Being honest and living honestly will develop a person in a true man or woman of character as well as a true man or woman of God. It will almost never be easy. But it will be possible, by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us through God’s Word. The more we immerse ourselves in the truth of God’s Word, the more we’ll be able to speak the language of truth and live a life of truth.

It will also take courage, but that’s a whole new topic – one we’ll explore next time.

Integrity

“It’s sometimes easier to do the wrong thing, but it’s always better to do the right thing”

- Tony Dungy’s Mom (Uncommon, pg 11).

Humility is being “humble” or being “humbled.” It is usually better if you humble yourself rather than being humbled by someone else. Being humbled by someone else is usually called “humiliation” and that is a negative word in our culture.

A very positive word for me is the word “integrity.” Of the six words on the whiteboard above my desk – Humility, Integrity, Honesty, Courage, Faithfulness, and Wisdom – I think “integrity” is my favorite.

I don’t think there is a greater compliment that could be given to me than to say that I have “integrity.” Ironically enough – or maybe not so much – is that I have never heard anyone describe me as having integrity.

As I think about it, the reason may be because integrity is intricately connected to the other traits on my list. And when I was younger I was not very successful in cultivating the other traits – as anyone who knew me as a teenager and in college could – to my humiliation – attest.

But I want to have integrity. It has become one of my goals to be a man about whom it will be said, “He is a man of integrity.”

The good news for me is that there is still time. As long as I have a breath in this world, I still have time, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to become a man of whom it can be said has integrity.

I strive to be a man who people can count on to do what I said I would do. That hasn’t always been the case with me (ask the same people I mentioned above). I’ve also been working on being a husband my wife can count on and trust when I’m not around her. I’ve worked at that for the last 22 years. Successfully, I believe. So much so that if I were to go away to an out-of-town meeting or event, she trusts that I’m still faithful to the wedding vows I made to her in August of 1991.

While I’m still working toward my goal of being known as a man of integrity, I am encouraged by Tony Dungy, who wrote in his book, Uncommon:

“Integrity is … no respecter of position or wealth or race or gender…. Integrity does not come in degrees … you either have integrity or you do not” (Uncommon, pp13-14).

Integrity is something I have to actively decide that I’m going to have. And I have to decide that I’m going to have it each and every day – even multiple times a day. It doesn’t matter if I’ve got money in the bank or not, whether I’m a Senior Pastor or Assistant Pastor, or whether I’m anything at all.

It matters that I’m a man of God, following in His footsteps, living the life His Son Jesus lived and died to give me.

It is my prayer that my family will be able to honestly put these words on my tombstone:

Here rests a man of integrity.

Character Building: Humility

This is true for me: if I don’t humble myself, I will be humbled by someone – or Someone – else. I won’t say it’s true for others, but I suspect it might be. But, ironically enough, I can only talk about my own humility.

My wife has this saying she pulls out whenever she passes through the living and the football game is on. If a touchdown is made, most of the time the player is dancing his “touchdown dance” she’ll say, “That guy needs to humble himself.”

Yeah, I’m with her on that one. I usually follow up with the comment, “He needs to act like he’s been in the end zone before.”

I know that there’s a difference between joy at accomplishing something and drawing attention to oneself for accomplishing something. There is a deep-rooted desire to be recognized for what we do. I think this is actually a God-given trait; even Jesus basked in the glow of hearing His Father say, “This is my beloved Son.” Twice! But in us it has been tainted by sin in the Fall.

I try to humble myself. After 47 years I finally have the confidence in myself to do this some of the time. But I know that if I don’t humble myself, God is going to humble me.

He’s reminded me that my life is not “all about me.” I’m not the superstar on this team. I’m not the head coach. I’m not even the offensive coordinator! I’m a player of this team of God’s. I’m part of the team but not an indispensable part of it. When I start to think that the team can’t get along without me, God takes me aside and to tell me that isn’t the case.

“I love you. I really do. But you are not the end-all-be-all of this team. That role can only be filled by perfection and righteousness. You don’t have what it takes to be that guy. If you try you will fail, and I don’t want you to fail! I love you too much for that! Let Jesus take that position. He’s perfectly suited for it. But I still want you on the team and will work with you and develop you into an important part of the team.”

So this is my prayer:

Father, I want to be humble – Godly-humble. Make me into the team member that will help to bring ultimate victory to Your team. Please keep me in Your care. Please continue to work with me, to develop my skills. Please give me the desire and the will to perform to the utmost of the abilities You have given me. And please continue to forgive me when I fall and fail. Thank You for the Superstar of this team, Your Son Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.