Greetings all and Happy Sabbath!

Memorial Day

Monday is Memorial Day. A day set aside to honor those who died in battle for our country. While we don’t condone war as disciples of Christ, it is certainly appropriate to take time to think about those who have served our country, as well as thank a veteran if you happen to see one.

I have to admit, I have a fondness for war movies. One of my favorites is ‘A Bridge Too Far.’ It’s based on the true story of a failed allied attempt to capture a bridge in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden in 1944.

A narrow escape

One of the reasons I love that particular movie is it chronicles the story of Major General Roy Urquhart (played by Sean Connery) of the British Army. He and a small fraction of his men narrowly escape death and capture in what is considered one of the worst failures of the Allies during World War 2.

As the movie portrays it, he and his men simply walked out of the Netherlands unnoticed by the German army due to the cover of a massive rainstorm. As he is walking, he looks up at the sky, smiles and says, “Even God loves a Scotsman.”

Joy during war?

While the move is reportedly quite accurate, I was unable to verify if the quote by Major General Urquhart is true. Never-the-less, it depicts something unique: joy during war.  Joy that, while the operation was a failure and many of his men died, he was at least able to lead some of them back home.

Does our joy depend on our circumstances? Perhaps better asked, do we sometimes confuse joy with being happy? Do we think everything needs to be going our way in order to have joy, or is there more to it than that?

In tomorrow’s message, we’ll take a look at what exactly joy is, and how we can find it, even in difficult times!