Wishing you well on this Veteran’s Day,
Charles Schultz, in his comic strip Peanuts, had a marvelous line from Snoopy. Snoopy is watching Charlie Brown and Linus pass by, and Snoopy murmurs to himself, “I wonder why some of us are born dogs while others are born people. Is it just chance? Somehow the whole thing seems unfair.” Then Snoopy adds this line: “Why should I have been the lucky one?”
Most of us could afford to ask Snoopy’s question. Even with our occasional difficulties, we are still the lucky ones. No Berlin Wall runs across our borders. No secret police knock on our doors when we criticize the government. No garbage trucks are sent each day to pick up the bodies of our loved ones who died during the night. Few of us know what it means to be desperately hungry. The majority of our children do not die in the first year of their lives. What about the opportunities given to us by the accident of birth? Why are we the lucky ones?
150 years ago, we knew very little about sanitary conditions or alleviating pain. Countless people died from diseases which today would be considered a minor ailment. We owe a great debt to those who made discoveries which changed these things. Aren’t we the lucky ones?
Such good fortune imposes upon us obligations. In 1854, Ulysses S. Grant resigned from the army. Without funds and far from his Ohio home, he made his way to West Point and called on an old friend, Simon Bolivar Buckner. Bucker gave Grant some money. Eight years later, when Grant captured Fort Donelson, the surrendering general was Buckner. The other officers had fled. Later, Bucker said, “Grant never forgot my act of kindness. After my surrender, Grant followed me to my quarters, leaving behind his own officers celebrating their victory. There in the shadows, in that modest manner typical of Grant, he took out his purse and handed it to me.”
Jesus once told us the lesson also revealed in the story of Grant: “Freely you have received; therefore, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). The next time something good happens to you, ask, “Why me?” Then share your good fortune with someone else.
Remember, we are the lucky ones,
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
