When I was around ten or eleven, my family packed up our silver Chevy station wagon and headed East from the Chicago suburbs where we lived and toward the nation’s capital. My mom had been planning this trip to D.C. for months and months. This was before the age of the Internet, she had to do it the old-fashioned way, looking through brochures and making phone calls to hotels in the Beltway. We were on a fixed budget and our vacations were tied to the success of my father’s plumbing business. So we stayed a few miles away from the National Mall and used public transportation to get around, again, relying on paper maps, without smartphones and apps. This trip was transformative for me.
I still have vivid memories, over three-and-a-half decades later, but among them is my sense of awe and wonder at the Lincoln Memorial, still the best square footage in all of America. (If you visit DC, go at night and it’s nearly a spiritual experience). I remember waking up before the sun another day and getting in line to visit the White House, hoping to catch a glimpse of President George HW Bush. In those pre-9/11 days, the tours were less restrictive. We visited much of the White House, even peering up into the family quarters, though that part was heavily restricted.
But perhaps the memory I have not forgotten is the day we spent at Arlington Cemetery. Rows and rows of graves line this sacred spot of land a few miles outside D.C. My father made sure we were on time for the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. If you are not familiar, this is a grave that honors those who died but have never been identified. This was an emotional day there as my parents explained to me and my siblings the price paid by those buried in. They gave their lives up for freedom.
Today we celebrate Memorial Day in America. Unlike Veterans Day, where we rightly honor anyone who served in the military, Memorial Day honors those who died on the battlefield. Ronald Reagan once gave tribute to our fallen heroes this way:
On Memorial Day, we pause to remember those members of our Armed Forces who have preserved our liberty and our freedom by making the supreme sacrifice. While we Americans traditionally celebrate this day with picnics and parades, and while we think of this day as the unofficial beginning of summer, we know it is also a time of somber but inspiring memories. Memories of so many courageous Americans who, while wearing our country's uniform, fought and died so that we could enjoy the blessings of this day, so that we could live in peace and freedom.
Today, we pay solemn tribute to our fallen countrymen. We know we can never give them as much as they gave us, but we also know that our generation and succeeding generations can, by keeping the flame of freedom burning brightly, ensure that they did not die in vain. As we observe this Memorial Day by remembering our fallen patriots, let us also remember that preserving the peace and preventing war means keeping our Armed Forces as strong and ready as they are today. Let us honor the memory of those who gave their last full measure of devotion by rededicating ourselves to what they died for: a strong America and the cause of freedom.
Scripture tells us that “greater love has no man, than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends (John 15:13).” As Reagan said, we enjoy a day off, we grill and watch baseball and hang with our friends under an umbrella of freedom that someone else died for. Memorial Day should invoke in us profound gratitude. It’s quite easy to spot what is wrong with America, sure. We live in an age when every grievance can be easily published and every problem can go viral. Yet do we pause to thank God for the privilege of living in this great country, where we don’t have to worry about being arrested for what we believe, where we can criticize our leaders without recourse, where we can attend church without fearing a knock on the door?
Memorial Day should also shape our view of courage. Bravery today has become an elastic definition for personal gratification, even foolishness. Living your best life now is considered an act of courage. Owning someone online with a ridiculous meme is considered courage. Flexing in front of a home gym for likes and subscriptions is considered courage. On this day, however, we should pause and reflect on real bravery.
The boys who willingly stormed the beaches of Normandy—that’s courage. Genuine courage isn’t measured by the size of your six-pack, or by the size of your bank account, or by the size of your ego but by the willingness to sacrifice on behalf of what you believe. The leader who most defines courage from the 20th Century—Winston Churchill—was portly, had bad sleep habits, and painted as a hobby. He’d be a poor avatar for today’s distorted masculinity. Yet he stood against the Nazis, nearly alone, and together with a President in a wheelchair, saved Western Civilization.
Few of us will be called to such extreme displays of courage, though in every generation, many die to protect our freedom. But we can display smaller acts of courage such as self-sacrifice, the willingness to stand up for what we believe, and remaining faithful, under hardship, to our most important commitments: God, family, and our country. Most importantly, we can stop mistaking silly acts of foolish self-expression for courage.