A Memorial

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves" --- Phil. 2:3


A Man of Action

I was blessed this weekend to learn of the selfless heroism of one such man, Sgt. Jeremy R. Wright of Shelbyville, Indiana. Like so many others, Jeremy was greatly impacted by the attacks on 9-11. The difference between Jeremy and "so many others" (myself included), is Jeremy was not only a man of conviction, he was a man of action. Not only was he impacted, he wanted to make an impact, and though he could have become an officer because he had a college degree in Chemistry, Jeremy enlisted in the Army in April of 2002 in order to take the fast track to the Army's elite Special Forces program.

Jeremy was by all standards a successful man. A man who at 28, as the trite saying goes, "had the rest of his life ahead of him." He was an All-American distance runner multiple times and was a member of the U.S. Mountain Running Team. He graduated from Wabash College summa cum laude in 1996 with a degree in Chemistry. But according to those who knew and served with Jeremy, he never mentioned these accomplishments. Instead of boasting about what he had previously done, he chose to focus on what he was convicted to do.

After completing his SF training in July 2004, Sgt. Wright was deployed to Afghanistan four months later in November. On January 3, 2005, Sgt. Wright was killed in action when an IED exploded near his vehicle just outside of Asadabad, Afghanistan. At only 31 years of age, Sgt. Wright's life came to a sudden end on a foreign land, half the world away from his hometown, fighting for the liberation of a people whose language he did not even speak. A true example of selfless heroism. Sgt. Wright is survived by his father, Dale Wright, and his mother, Jacquelyn Nickel.

It is our responsibility and duty to remember and honor the legacy of men like Sgt. Jeremy Wright. Men of action who have integrity between what they say and what they do. They are the heroes of our history that fought to gain and preserve freedom on our home land, and confronted evil in foreign lands for the liberation of others who were either unwilling or unable to confront evil themselves. These brave soldiers have done it before, are doing it now, and will do it again if necessary. But not only are we to remember them, we are to learn from their lives. We are obligated to be motivated by their example to become "men and women of action." It's not sufficient to just have convictions, we must act upon those convictions. Merely remembering their legacy is not enough.

According to Ps. 39:5, our lives are but "handbreadths," which in the Hebrew literally means they are equal to the span of a palm. Look at your hand...from one side of your palm to the other is the length of your life. Our earthly lives are merely the dash between our date of birth and our date of death on our tombstone. It's what we choose to do with the short time in between that history will remember us by, and if we are not truly deeply influenced by men like Sgt. Jeremy Wright, then we have failed to give them the respect and honor they deserve. This is our duty, and as General Robert E. Lee said, "Duty is the sublimest word in the English language. You can never do more than your duty. You should never wish to do less."

I know we have some friends in Iraq that read our devotions, and maybe others in Afghanistan and other areas of the world...THANK YOU for your selfless service. Please know that you are in our prayers.