Veteran’s Day and Anonymous Pen Pals
At church this morning a woman stood up and cried as she asked us to write letters to the members of our church in the military. It was a touching plea and if you have the opportunity I encourage you to do the same. It is a little hard to know what to say to someone you don’t know, but the support is surely appreciated. I am reminded of a letter I received as I was starting college. It was from a man I have never met. I dug it up and thought I would share it with you as we remember Veteran’s Day.
Dear Adrian,
The purpose of this letter is to express my appreciation for your friendship and for the efforts you are making in this new phase of your life. (The Air Force taught me to always start letters with “the purpose.”)
You face many choices during the next few years. Along with your parents and a host of other “old folks,” I offer my best wishes, my prayers and some “free advise” for the future.
First, you already know or you will soon learn how little effort it takes to stand-out in performance above most peers. Don’t let this lull you into mediocre efforts in job performance, human relations or your work for Christ. My fear is that we, as a society are promoting average accomplishments instead of proclaiming the virtue of excellence in everyday activities. So much for philosophy. On this work ethic let me share an incident which has helped me make some better decisions for the last 27 years.
In 1969, I was a young pilot sitting in a bar in Saigon with several awful tasting Vietnamese beers running through my bloodstream. Right out of the movies, this girl sits down, asks for a light and proceeds to smoke. Not tobacco, but it was marijuana. I had never had the opportunity to try marijuana, and after a bad day at the office getting shot at, it seemed like the right time to try it. I was within inches and seconds of lighting up when an overpowering thought invaded my alcohol dulled brain. “Would you want to read about this in the morning paper?” Following thoughts included: Would I want my family to know? How about my fellow officers who depend on me while flying wing? How about God? He already knew.
I’ve always been rather proud of that particular decision that night because I knew that I did not want to read about the incident. Now, I have made some bad decisions in the last 27 years, but I’ve had to twist or rationalize to get past that same question that haunts me when confronted with a “right/wrong” decision. In retrospect, I wonder if presidents Nixon and Clinton would have decided differently in the Watergate or Jennifer Flowers cases if they had known what would be spattered on the front pages. Of course the newspaper is just a symbol that caused me to stop and think. God was the author of that bit of insight, and I’m ashamed that I have not always made the right decisions since that night.
With the promise of Christ’s forgiveness, I can now go forward with the tools for making some better judgement calls (decisions in the future). I ask athat you pray for my son, Alan and me; pray that God may give me wisdom and that he may grant Alan maturity and some insight on good decision making.
I’m looking forward to your visit “home” sometime in the future. In the meantime I hope to enjoy my new-found friendship with your dad and family. I always talk to much, but I am a trained listener if you ever need one. Your friend and brother in Christ.
