(a 5 minute read) Patrick is a football player, has been for several years. We are talking he’s an NFL player. Imagine the life that comes along with that. Then came 9/11……. and the events of 9/11 affected him powerfully. You can say that Patrick had a calling to join the Armed Forces. More so, he felt convicted to do so, driven to serve his country and defend it. Defend his loved ones, his family, his friends and his fellow citizens. Patrick at the time was planning to get married, and did indeed get married in May 2002. Can you imagine the conversations he had with her before he enlisted?

I do not know what these conversations were, but I can only envision or visualize discussions about; you have a great job…………. We’re about to build a family together………….. What if something happen to you?? On and on, and please go ahead and picture and dwell on some of possible discussions they may have had. One line I can imagine said; “to serve and save others it requires sacrifice. That could be of a job, a status, of time with family and even of life itself.”

Pat did enlist in June 2002 and serve his country.

Patrick died while serving in Afghanistan in 2004.

At the next football game where Pat played, the crowd stood and a moment of silence was observed to honor him as an individual, honor his service for his country and honor all those that sacrificed their lives in the line of duty to save us citizens and grant us the freedom that we possess here at home.

Every time Pat comes up in conversation, as you may imagine, everyone would talk about the sacrifice him and his family had given. You can sense the air of RESPECT, ADMIRATION and even REVERENCE during these moments when his name came up. Soon of course conversation would drift to something else, but these were powerful moments dwelling on love of country and of sacrifice and of reverence.

Let’s think of what Christ did for us, or should I say continues to do? You choose! I say this as typically we refer to ‘What Christ DID for us.’ We do say it in the past tense almost ALWAYS…….

Think about how we handle or address the sacrifice on the cross? It does come up in conversations and comes up frequently, and indeed we talk about it in pure reverence and then move onto whatever comes up next, typically losing that reverence that we’ve experienced a moment ago……… Let’s be honest about how this goes, but then again, maybe it is just me.

Do you think the Lord our SAVIOR would want us to revere that moment more often?? If you ask me, I say YES, YES and YES. But how, is the BIG question………….. I can only offer a suggestion;

Instead of using the ‘SAVING’ for the redemption of SIN, with a capital ‘S’ ‘I’ ‘N’, why not use it for the little sins. Do you believe you still sin? Yes, you the reader! The only answer is, “of course I do.” Then go ahead and every time you do a ‘little sin’ follow it by, “Thank you my Lord for SAVING me from myself.” You will soon, and pretty soon at that, find out that the Lord is constantly saving you. CONSTANTLY SAVING ME.

Since really there are no ‘little sins’, and for clarification, we’re talking about; white lies, thoughts about greed or envy or just feeling you are not getting what one ‘deserves’, angry words, sexual thoughts or actions, and on and on………… you don’t need them all listed here, but it is a looooooong list.

Imagine, using my daily sin to REVERE my Lord continually and constantly. Did your hair on your arms just rise?? Or got chills / goose bumps all over?? I hope it did, for reverence is indeed a feeling and of course can exhibit itself differently. Just imagine getting these feelings on a continual basis. You do not need to imagine, practice and only the Lord will reveal it.

I must say that if Pat were to read this, he may just roll on the floor laughing as Pat was a professed atheist….. I do not personally know Pat nor of his circumstances. Only the dates are factual.