Inspiration

Greetings in Christ Jesus, fellow soldiers.

What inspires you? More and more today, people are being told to "believe in themselves" in order to succeed. They are being told that, somehow, there is something about you worth striving for, or in the context of the military, perhaps even dying for.

But is that what drove soldiers across the beachhead at Normandy? Were the Rangers on D-Day so inspired by themselves that they climbed up sheer rock walls under direct enemy fire?

Nope. They were inspired by things greater than themselves. That is what enables men and women to do great things, which always entail sacrifice. Those who sacrifice of themselves do if for a larger goal--perhaps their country or their ideals. For many of you, as I've asked you about your greatest accomplishment, you've answered your marriage, family, and kids. They inspire you to step up when you country calls on you, even though it costs you that precious time with them.

Self-esteem doesn't drive us, self-sacrifice does. It is a pitiable thing when our lives become greater than our purpose in life.

Yet I would go a step further. The Apostle Paul, by God's Spirit, once wrote "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task given me by the Lord Jesus Christ, the task of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:24). He wrote this as he walked that lonely road toward his eventual death, in the footsteps of his Savior.

What truly animates a man is knowing that his life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:1-4). That man is untouchable, in that "nothing can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8), and that man is free, in that he can be a "living sacrifice" in view of Christ's mercy, with no ultimate care for himself. He lives to bear the Gospel, with his eyes fixed upon the glory of God.

Are your eyes affixed to Heaven, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1-4)?