Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday March 11, 2009

On Friday of last week I attended the memorial service for Corporal Zachary R. Nordmeyer. Cpl Nordmeyer was killed in action in Iraq. Witnesses testified that he died in a heroic manner.

I knew Zach only slightly. His mother grew up along with my children, and she was called home a few years ago via a tragic accident at a local hospital in Indianapolis. Zach was 14 when this took place. Zach's grandmother and grandfather had been members of the church I pastored way back when. I do not mention this for morbid reasons but to hopefully give reason to pause and ponder, and in so doing perhaps take a deeper look at life to be sure, but also to the often terrible price of the freedom we tend to take for granted and the blasé attitude we too often display when we read or hear of yet another American Solider offering the supreme sacrifice, staining foreign soil with his lifeblood.

My son, Dr. Jonathan Lilly, officiated for the celebration and his message was in the opinion of many, stellar. Jon had been the clergymen at the services for Zach's mother seven years before.

Jon used a quote that seemed to move the gathered mourners more than any other, in my opinion at least. You could feel the electric shoot through the vast throng when he read the statement given by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt during the dark days of WWII when hundreds of service men and women were giving up their life each day in the long and often tormenting battle that encompassed the world. Mrs. Roosevelt said:

"Lest I keep my complacent way I must remember somewhere out there a person died for me today. As long as there must be war, I ask and I must answer was I worth dying for?"

How about it? Are you the kind of person another person would feel even a little justification for laying down their life for? Mrs. Roosevelt's burning question is one that should cause each American to ask and honestly give an answer.

Strange as it may seem, the American soldier does NOT ask, "Is anyone out there worth dying for?" The answer is not germane to the purpose of the American Soldier. The soldier is out there with everything on the line in order for the at home person to have the freedom to be or become worth dying for, to have in place the ideals of our founding documents and beliefs.

When Zach was saying his goodbyes as he left for Iraq, his grandfather and grandmother talked with him about knowing Christ. To say that his resounding YES, was a great comfort on Friday last is understatement of British magnitude.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2009 Use with credit

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