Freedom comes with a price

February 2, 2007

By John W. Kennedy

These days when Americans think of veterans it’s usually those of the Iraqi War or perhaps the Vietnam War. But if we didn’t have veterans of earlier wars we might not be here today, at least as free Americans.

Perhaps the most important hostility in the past century was World War II. This six-year conflict involved 61 countries and 110 million service personnel. In all, 55 million people died, including 407,000 Americans.

The United States entered the war in December 1941 after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. At the time, my dad had graduated from seminary and been pastoring for several years. But this was an era of great patriotic fervor, something we haven’t seen since. I remember my dad telling the story of seeking advice from a professor. Would he do more good at home, or overseas?

My dad decided to enter the service, along with many other ministers. He didn’t have to go. As a minister preaching in his first church, already 26 years old and with a 2-year-old daughter, he didn’t face being drafted. But he went to a district ministers meeting where he and a minister friend started talking about all the young men in their church heading off to war. A total of 25 from my dad’s church already had gone into the military. My dad and his pastor buddy decided they needed to join the war effort, too: that would be where they would be most useful.

My dad felt called to serve his nation, and he became a Navy chaplain. He ended up crossing the Atlantic Ocean 22 times, on a ship taking new troops to Europe and bringing wounded ones back home. It was a scary assignment. Once a torpedo crippled the ship.

Even though he was young and inexperienced, my dad felt he needed to be obedient to the assignment. He felt compelled to preach to and counsel those sailors and soldiers facing eternal decisions.

He might have been guided by Proverbs 24:10-12. It reads:

“If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?” (NIV).

My dad survived the war and returned to the United States, meeting the 2-year-old son who was born after my dad shipped. He went on to preach until 2001, retiring a couple of weeks before his 85th birthday.

If you’re facing a challenge today, be assured God will help you with your decision. Courage and intelligence aren’t just qualities needed in wartime. As James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

John W. Kennedy is news editor of Today’s Pentecostal Evangel.