In response to a recent comment left on my blog, I am making this post tonight. I keep asking myself, "How far will you go to love someone?" I look at the story of Hosea in the Bible. God told him to marry a prostitute and to continue to show her love even after she had left him for other men and had had children that did not belong to him. Would that happen in our society today? I think it is probably quite rare. When someone hurts me, I want to leave them...I do not want to pray for them, I do not want to be an open door for them. Even when I know that they are hurting, it is hard to look on them with love and to be a faithful friend. But that is who God is...He is faithful, He is patient to wait for us, He understands where we are and He does not hold it against us. God's heart towards us is full of unconditional love and the desire that we will come to a point of being able to freely love Him in return. I have a long ways to go before I get to the point of truly living in this way.

The rest of this post is to John and to every other man or woman who commits themself to the service of freedom:

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Romans 5:8

Passion is not just in words, it is in actions. This verse came to life for me because of your examples. You fought for people who sometimes do not even know their own need for freedom, who often fight against you as you lay down your lives for them.

Thank you, John, for fighting for our country. The sacrifices that you and Joe have made have greatly challenged my faith. Am I willing to die for my country? Even more, am I willing to die for the faith that I claim to hold onto? You laid your lives on the line and you set a standard. My life is changed because of you also.