Going All Out to Celebrate Our 5,000th Ride!

A Special #OneontaRides Ride Report
9-15-17
72 people were given safe rides home the night of September 15th. But for dozen or so Kindness Team members on hand, and even more who contributed behind the scenes, last Friday was all about celebrating the night’s first ride, #OneontaRides’ 5,000th!

For past milestone rides (like 1K, 3K, & 4K), we celebrated by blessing the rider with a fun gift. But this is 5,000. A big milestone like this calls for a celebration on a larger scale--and that’s exactly what we did by treating one lucky rider, SUNY Oneonta freshman Julia Lombardi, to a giant party at the Kindness Station.

72 #SafeRides given tonight, including a special ride to Julia, #OneontaRides 5000th ride! Threw her a big surprise party. Story/video soon! pic.twitter.com/9XAEQzLghF

— Redemption Movement (@RedemptionNY) September 16, 2017

Operation Ride #5K

Sometimes, it’s difficult to know exactly when we’ll give a milestone ride. But, seeing as we ended the previous week at 4,999 rides, we had a pretty good idea of when the big ride would happen. This allowed me set the Kindness Team into motion for what would be the biggest act of kindness we’ve ever done!

Live music @ the #OneontaRides Kindness Station tonight? Wha the whaaaat!? & safe rides home tonight starting at 10 pm 📞 6074342564 pic.twitter.com/pujKZBLuEC

— Redemption Movement (@RedemptionNY) September 15, 2017

The plan (Operation Ride #5K) was as follows:

• Casually pick up the rider like normal (while keeping a tight lid on the party plans so the person we give a ride to would be genuinely surprised).
• Then, notify every participating Kindness Team Member via group chat that we got the rider, along with what their name is. 
• Then have everyone move into position.
• Next, I would leave with the lucky rider, drive for a couple of blocks, make up an excuse to go back to the Kindness Station, and circle back.  
• Upon arrival, a live band would welcome the rider with a song and the team would be celebrating with sparklers, glow sticks, a confetti canon, and signs with the rider’s name on it.
• The rider would then receive a gift bag, and a representative from Domino’s would be on hand with a free pizza and a gift card for a free pizza party. 
• Then we pile back into the car and take the happy rider home.

Here’s how everything turned out!

The Long Wait

The biggest challenge of the plan is that we didn’t know exactly when the first ride request was going to come in. This meant having everything ready to go and everybody in place as early as 10pm--for a ride that didn’t take place until midnight! The team of anxious volunteers made the most of their time in limbo by serving at the station. Plus, having such a large team on hand made for an enjoyable time of getting to know one another.   

Mark Henke filled in like a pro.

For awhile there, it was looking like the biggest part of the festivities, the live band, wasn’t going to happen, due to scheduling conflicts with their show that was taking place at The Black Oak Tavern (one block away). No sooner did I get bummed out about this and random musicians started showing up at the Kindness Station. It only took a little convincing to talk them into grabbing an instrument and filling in.

Thankfully, the musicians had no problem learning the song we had lined up, “Slow Ride” by Foghat, and changing the lyrics to “Free Ride.”

Having the extra help at the station also allowed for some great conversations to take place. Plus, even though we didn’t tell the downtown crowds exactly what we were up to with the instruments at the Kindness Station, it nevertheless drew a curious crowd that made sure to stick around to see the big surprise.
  
We also had an bonus band show up at the Kindness Station and play a song for the crowd that remained after we took the 5,000th rider home. Our old friends in Lila Ignite just completed their set at the Black Oak Tavern and stopped by the station to hang out and witness the 5,000th ride. Lila Ignite joined in the festivities with a tambourine and singing background vocals, and when “The Free Ride Band” was done, they took over and treated the crowd to a song.

All in all, the 5,000th ride celebration was a lot of fun, but the night of service for the Kindness Team didn’t end there: 

Highlights from the rest of the night include:

Garland dressed up and wore a tie for the big occasion.

We got to premiere some new signage for the Kindness Station from our friend Mel of Ones-Self Design.

In addition to Domino’s giving the 5,000th rider a free pizza party and a gift certificate, they provided another pizza party for the downtown bar crowd at closing time.

Having two Kindness Team members volunteer to babysit my kids so that my wife Laura could be on hand for the 5,000th ride. When it was time for Laura to go home and relieve the babysitters, we had another group wanting a ride so we took the kids’ car seats out and gave them on ride too.  

We had enough volunteers that we could take out a third car, which allowed for Tammy Miller to drive the Kindness Wagon so I could take my personal car (with the kids’ car seats now removed). Tammy is a mom extraordinaire/teacher at Lighthouse Christian Academy, and she was serving that night with her teenage daughter, Montanna. Tammy turned out to be a pro at driving, and I think that having a compassionate mother serve in this capacity was a treat for the students she took home.

One couple that we’ve consistently given rides to all last year, Mike and Jill, approached the station for a ride. Although, there was some tension between the two and they weren’t their happy selves. Jill was wearing a sash and celebrating her 19th birthday and she mentioned to me how her and Mike were having a fight. I gave Jill a bag of candy I had at the station and wished her a happy birthday, and I did my best to talk with her and Mike about their relationship on the ride home and help them out. There wasn’t anything I could say to erase the hurt feelings between them, but I did get some smiles out of them and encouraged them to focus on the happier times.

Not soon after, I had two male students in the car with me and we all spotted a young female student stumbling pretty badly at the corner of Main and Chestnut. I asked if the students would be so kind as to ask from their car window if the girl could use a ride home. One of them, unaware of the nuances involved in such a proposition, did so by yelling to the girl, “Hey, you’re f**ked up! Get a ride.” Understandably, the girl replied with “f***k you.” I immediately remedied the situation by pulling over, getting out, and approaching the girl on foot.

She was with her friend who turned out to be her sister. They were both very intoxicated. The girl who was stumbling the worse was wearing Red Jug Pub devil horns from celebrating her birthday. I introduced myself to the sister and she immediately took me up on the ride offer. We both helped her sister into the car and gave her a window seat, just in case. Since I was close to the Kindness Station and the Domino’s pizza party just took place, I managed to swing by for some pizza which I gave to all four passengers. They couldn’t believe their luck, getting a free ride and free pizza. Everybody in the car was overwhelmed with kindness. 

During the whole ride, both sisters were having a difficult time. Eventually, I had to pull over so the one girl could lean out the car and vomit. I tended to her by holding her hair, patting her on the back, and reassuring her that she’ll be okay. Her sister was unable to provide this kind comfort because she was about ready to vomit herself.

As I was comforting the intoxicated birthday girl, I looked down to see that my new shoes were covered in vomit. I was certainly annoyed, but that’s the price one pays for helping people in their time of desperate need. While the the girl was vomiting, two SUNY Oneonta police officers stopped and checked in on us. They both seemed appreciative of what I was trying to do. Eventually, the girl had nothing left in her stomach to throw up so I helped clean her up with some paper towels, shut the car door, and rushed up to Hillside Commons. I then dropped off the two sisters before the other one could lose her dinner. The girl who threw up told me how embarrassed she was, so I assured her that there’s nothing to be embarrassed about, and how the important thing is that we got her home safe. 

Later that night after the Kindness Station was all packed away, I dropped off Rakesh and, as he was getting out of the car, he paused, looked back at me, and said, “I want you to know that I’m praying for that girl from last week (the one who Rakesh tried to keep from taking drugs). She’s on my heart and I have compassion for her.” I then went on my way and, sure enough, ten minutes later this same girl called me for a ride. I picked her up and, while taking her home, even told her about the cool coincidence of Rakesh praying for her. She was taken aback and kept asking me, “Why do you guys care for me?” I was able to tell her about God’s love for her, as well as address misconceptions about God that her guilt-driven religious background taught her. This was the 3rd week in a row we’ve ministered to this girl who we consider a good friend.

How long will it take for us to give another 5,000 rides? At the pace we’re going, it’ll happen much quicker than the 4 years it took to give the first 5,000 rides!

Check Out the New #OnentaRides Kindness Fleet!

It’s been a quiet summer for RM, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been idle!

We’ve been working behind the scenes to expand our #OneontaRides community outreach effort. This time last year, we were down to only one small car. When we resume operations this Friday, 8-25, we’ll have a “kindness fleet” and be able to help even more people in our community make it home safe on the weekends.

This includes the addition of an 8-person “Kindness Wagon,” the original Kindness Car is repaired and ready to, Pastor Kaler's Kia is still insured for giving free rides and standing by as a backup car (should we encounter a big night), and gaining access to vans from other local organizations is shaping up nicely (more details on that to follow).

Expanding a community service comes at a cost—we’ve spent roughly $2,500 just this summer alone on car repairs, licensing fees, and an extra in-car security camera. Plus, we paid for a year’s worth of insurance on our cars, AND we paid extra to increase the amount of coverage for all of our passengers.

All of this has been a major expense for our little church, but it’s all possible thanks to the generosity of others. This act of kindness outreach continues to operate solely from the kindness and gifts of others.

We’ve got a big school year of outreach planned and we’ll need help from the community with funds and volunteers in order to pull it off and keep the crazy momentum that we experienced from our last Kindness Team outing in May. You can join the Oneonta Kindness Team Facebook Group to volunteer, monetary donations can be made online, and we’re always accepting donations of Kindness Station supplies.

The 10th semester of #OneontaRides kicks off this Fall!

The Redemption Movement Now Meeting on Thursday Evenings!

We’re excited to announce that, beginning August 3rd, The Redemption Movement will have weekly gatherings every Thursday that are open to the public.

What Will Thursdays at The Redemption Movement Look Like?

In keeping with our values, we want to keep things simple and relational. Here’s the breakdown of what this weekly rhythm will look like:

• We’ll meet at our storefront at 148 River Street at 6pm.
• We’ll have a meal together, followed by a study/group discussion.
• The meal will be coordinated by those who regularly attend and those who tell us ahead time that they’ll be there (first-time visitors shouldn’t feel obligated to bring anything). 
• Childcare will be provided. Children will join us for the meal and then be dismissed with a babysitter to a separate part of the building or property. Depending on the ages of the children and who’s watching them, we may have a Bible lesson prepared for the kids.
• Worship: Each gathering will offer some way to worship the Lord together, like music, prayer, communion, etc. 

We Finally Feel Like a Family When We Come Together!

This is an exciting time for us because we haven’t offered public gatherings or worship services since last November.

Instead, we’ve been investing exclusively in small-group discipleship. The idea here is that, for years, our worship services felt inadequate. Like, RM just didn’t feel like a family that was totally committed to each other (which is how the New Testament describes church).

Therefore, we made it a point to stop doing casual church events so we could better invest in one another through small, discipleship-driven groups. It should also be noted how, in the spirit of church unity, we spent this time attending worship services of other local churches. 

Blog further explaining RM's hiatus from public gatherings.

We called these small discipleship groups “Movement Meals,” and we kept them private so that a new person couldn’t come into the small group and disrupt the progress of community-building that was being made, i.e., getting to know each other and building trust.

Monday Night Movement Meal Group, Spring 2017.

For the upcoming Fall season, we plan on starting up new Movement Meal groups, as well as to continue providing Thursday evening gatherings that are open to the public.

After taking all of this time to invest in each other, it’s my hope that, when you visit The Redemption Movement, it won’t feel like just another social event. Instead, may you sense how committed we are to each other, and how we love one another like a family--this despite our church being made up of a rather diverse bunch. And, may this witness of community, togetherness, and unity speak louder than any sermon that’s preached, be more insightful than any Bible study that’s taught, and be more impactful than any performance by a worship band (which are all great things BTW).

Realistically, we’re expecting to start off small with just those who’ve been built up in our recent discipleship meals, along with their friends. Should Thursday evenings at RM grow into something more than what our dining room table or storefront can accommodate, well, I guess we’ll just have to come up with an entirely new plan!

Get a First Look at the New Kindness Car!

Big news for #OneontaRides: a car has been donated to the cause! And not just any car, but a 2004 Ford Taurus station wagon. It’s a vehicle that suits our needs much better than the old Mercury Grand Marquis that we’ve used since day one. Consider the following advantages:

Newer and Less Miles
Overall, the station wagon is in much better shape. Sure, it needs some repairs, but it has a lot more life left in her than the 22-year old Mercury. Continue reading blog on donate.theredemptionmovement.org >>

What’s it Mean to Be Lost? Everything to God!

An Anchor sermon preached by Kaler Carpenter of The Redemption Movement, June 4th, 2017.
Podcast on AnchorOneonta.com:

Facebook Live video:

It’s interesting to me that we live in a post-Christian world that no longer believes in sin, yet there are “cultural sins.” One big cultural sin that I want to open with by looking at: the sin of labeling others.

The idea here is that, our society has become so individualistic, that it’s now totally up to the individual to define their experience and determine who they are. And therefore, any outside attempt to label a person contrary to what they feel they are, why, that’s oppressive, insensitive, and a “cultural sin.”

For those who hold to a Biblical worldview, it can be challenging to operate in such a fluid and individualistic culture. Primarily because the Bible has zero problem labeling people--(and newsflash, so was pretty much all of human history up until the postmodern era).

The Biblical worldview is extremely black and white. Consider with me just a few examples of how the Bible doesn’t throw any punches when it comes to labeling people:

You’re either saved, or unsaved.
You’re either righteous, or unrighteous.
You’re either wise, or foolish.
You’re either a Jew, or a Gentile.
You’re either a believer, or a nonbeliever.
You’re either holy, or a sinner.
You’re either found, or lost.

Now, in light of how sensitive the world is about labels, how then is a Christian supposed to hold to and communicate this black and white worldview? Especially when it comes to our Christian witness? Three quick tips:

• For starters, I think that those who hold to this Biblical worldview should be aware of how such a worldview may be misunderstood and interpreted negatively by someone who doesn’t share it or isn’t familiar with it.

• Secondly, in order to have a good Christian witness, we need to respect and try to understand worldviews that are different than our own. Empathy goes a long way.

• Thirdly, the Christian worldview should be communicated in a such way that’s both loving and doesn't compromise the truth.

Thankfully, the theology of scripture is rich enough to achieve this. To show you this, I want to look at the Biblical concept of “lost.”

Concerning “lost,” consider this: if you engage in conversation with someone that’s unfamiliar with the Bible and you say in Christianese, “Those people are lost,” they might interpret that to mean something negative or judgmental, like “those people are stupid.” After all, who gets lost today? Only people who aren’t smart enough to read a map or use GPS. (btw, I still get lost even with GPS).

But, when the Bible talks about “the lost,” it’s doing so to communicate value and hope. Jesus explains just how much a lost person means to God in a short and powerful parable.

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. -Luke 15:8-10 (NIV)

The woman loses a silver coin, or a denarius. This is equivalent to a day’s wage. So, considering how the woman only has about 10 day’s worth of coins to her name, and that one-room houses built in first century Palestine typically didn’t have windows (thus why a lamp was needed), you get the impression that this woman wasn’t all that wealthy, like a peasant living paycheck to paycheck. Like, if she doesn’t find this coin, her family won’t eat. So there’s some super intense searching going on here.

To say that this lost coin was valuable to the woman is an understatement.

This is significant because in this parable, the woman represents God (which is significant in its own right), and the coin represents sinners--those who are lost and away from God. In context, Jesus tells this parable in response to the religious authorities who were accusing him of eating with sinners, a crime that deserved to be punished (Dt. 21:18-21).

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable. -Luke 15:1-3 (NIV)

Jesus responds by teaching 3 parables in a row (the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son) that each say the same thing: these sinners whom I eat with are lost, so they are valued by God; enough so that God uses every resource at His disposal to seek them out and find them.

The parable we read says that the woman lit the lamp, swept through the house, and looked carefully. It’s a picture of thoroughly looking under the couch cushions and sifting through the junk drawer. But the historical context actually makes this search more intense. The floors back then were essentially beat down dirt and dried reeds, and it was dark, and metal detectors weren’t invented yet. So we’re talking needle in a haystack. Perhaps the woman was using the lamp to hopefully catch a gleam of light reflecting off the silver.

This totally blows the minds of the Pharisees Jesus was addressing, because in their worldview, sinners were despised by God, tax collectors were enemies of Israel, and both groups should be avoided at all costs. Yet, here Jesus is, receiving sinners, eating with them, even, drawing near to them!

By the way Jesus conducted his meals, He was announcing to the Pharisees something new and scandalous about the Kingdom of God. However, for the Gentiles, for the sinners, for you and me, this simple action is a declaration of good news!

Social rules of dining mirrored the sectarian structures of the first century in both Jewish and Greco-Roman life. Who one ate with was a serious matter.

Yet Jesus uses the table to flip insider and outsider boundaries. For the Jews of Jesus’ day, meals bound participants to one another by covenants established between religion, persons and states. Jesus’ meal practices contested, transformed, and reinterpreted social mores. Jesus cultivated community at the table, modeling other-worldly availability. Jesus reclined at table with doubters, cowards, and betrayers, and called them friends.

Jesus used the table to express God’s friendship with religious outliers. Jesus’ choice of table guests represents God’s coming world, a foreshadowing of the feast at the kingdom of God (Rev. 19:19). -Church as Movement

In fact, when Jesus comes on the scene and announces that He is the Son of God, what does He say the very purpose of His mission is? Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

By Jesus incorporating seeking the lost into the mission of the Kingdom of God, now all those who are followers of Christ are given the same mandate “to seek and save the lost.” This means valuing lost enough to befriend them, and to seek them out with the same sense of fervor as the poor woman looking for her lost coin. This is the driving motive for Christians being called as missionaries to their communities.

Compare this to the old covenant. In fact, this idea of sinners being lost is totally foreign to the Jews, which is why you’ve probably never met a Jewish missionary.

No Pharisee had ever dreamed of a God like that. A great Jewish scholar has admitted that this is the one absolutely new thing which Jesus taught men about God---that he actually searched for men. The Jew might have agreed that if a man came crawling home to God in self-abasement and prayed for pity he might find it; but he would never have conceived of a God who went out to search for sinners. We believe in the seeking love of God, because we see that love incarnate in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to seek and to save that which was lost. -William Barclay 

According to Jesus, God’s heart for the lost is clearly seen in Luke 15:

• When the woman found her lost coin, she rejoiced and threw a party.
• When the Shepherd found his lost sheep, he rejoiced and threw a party.
• And when the prodigal son returned, the father rejoiced and threw a banger of a party.

In v. 10 it says “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God.” So you get this idea of Heaven erupting into a big party. Why? Because Heaven and the angels are reflecting the heart of God. William Barclay further explains: 

The joy of God and all of the angels, when ONE SINNER comes home, is like the joy of a home when a coin which has stood between them and starvation has been lost and is found.

Christians, this reality should drive our mission. If our worship, prayer, and preaching is to please God, then we should work even more so to take seriously the very thing that gets God to experience unbridled joy and turn Heaven into a party--finding and saving the lost!

What’s this look like to take the mandate of seeking and saving the lost seriously?

For starters, it means actually being intentional about stepping outside of your comfort zone by inviting and sharing a table with sinners, just like Jesus did. I for one take this mandate very literally and actually spend my Friday nights, literally driving my car around Oneonta’s streets seeking the lost.

Secondly, it means taking seriously every relationship we have with the lost by trying to find ways to bring the Good News of the Gospel into it--in a credible and loving way. For example, remember how I opened by sharing advice on how to talk to postmoderns? Friends, I think about this all the time and I am constantly looking for ways to improve how I share the Gospel.

And this may sound crazy, but I even go so far as to review video footage of conversations I’ve had with the lost so I can go back and improve my Christian witness. Plus, The Redemption Movement has meetings where we review these videos together so we can all learn how to better share the Gospel. It’s quite fun actually.

Now, as crazy as that sounds, consider how much football players review tapes, study playbooks, and train their bodies like crazy. To fans, this devotion is admired. And here’s the thing, all of that crazy training for sports and mountains of money spent on it; it’s all for a game. Played for a trophy that will rust, for a championship that people will forget about, and in an expensive stadium that will eventually get demolished for a better one.

Paul in the Bible pretty much says the exact same thing in 1 Corinthians by referring to the mission of God as race--a race that all Christians are running!

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. -1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)

I want to close by premiering a new #OneotaRides video from giving a ride last month. In it, I explain what lost means to a student.

I want to show you this video to motivate your own sense of mission, and, like a football player watches tape in preparation for the big game, it’s my hope that this somehow equips and motivates you and Anchor for the mission of sharing the Gospel with the lost.

Before I play the video, let me give you some background. This is a ride given to a young man who stopped by our Kindness Station tent last month for the Senior Bar Crawl and he was very happy to meet us and introduce himself. He mentioned that we’ve provided safe rides home to his girlfriend all throughout the past school year, and how he was very thankful we were looking out for her.

Eventually, the young man requested a ride home. During the ride, we got to talking about faith and religion. He really wanted to know what our motivation was for serving others.  This inquiry led to a powerful explanation about what it means to be lost.

What’s Next for #OneontaRides? Setting Goals for the 2017-18 School Year

The 2016-17 school year has come to a close, which means a summer of rest, reflection, and fundraising for the Kindness Team volunteers that make #OneontaRides possible. 

Before I go into the goals for next year, I want to briefly go over a few highlights of last year: Continue reading blog on donate.theredemptionmovement.org >>

Vietnam Memorial Replica Hits My Hometown, and Then Hits Home

On Memorial Day Weekend 2017, Oneonta had the privilege of hosting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Replica and Mobile Education Center, AKA, The Wall That Heals.

Vietnam Wall replica comes to Oneonta, by @DS_MarkBhttps://t.co/3xs7ExK0cc pic.twitter.com/NJmVlnYgDQ

— The Daily Star (@thedailystar) May 27, 2017

I got to see the wall with my family, and even though my young boys proved too much of a handful for me to have the full experience, the wall nevertheless left an impact on me.

My feelings were that of gratitude, followed by sorrow. Although, my strongest feelings of thankfulness didn't come so much from the names on the wall, but rather, one name that wasn't on the wall. Namely, my own father, a Vietnam War veteran.

My dad saw combat in Vietnam, and he was fortunate to survive the experience and return home. Had he not survived, then I wouldn't be here today, along with my younger sister, and by extension, neither would my two sons, ages 3 and 1.

This thought stuck with me for the rest of the day, and it made me grateful to spend the day with my family, enjoying a Saturday at Gilbert Lake State Park.

What also hit me that day was another, much more grim reality: every name on that wall translates to not just one life being snuffed out by war, but it also means the world was denied that young man living a full life that includes having children. These children would have then gone on to have children of their own, and on and on for generations to come. Herein lies the often-forgotten tragedy that accompanies the loss of every life: when one life is cut short, the consequences of such a loss reach far beyond a headline or a name memorialized on a monument. Indeed, one battlefield casualty also means a casualty for any chance of future children and future generations from the fallen solider, or 57,939 to be exact.

And that's just on the American side of the war.

If every human is made in the image of God, then the lives of the Viet Cong soldiers matter to God too, and the life of every fallen Vietnamese had the same potential to multiply generations of people--all of whom would have been loved by God, as much as God loves Americans. When one takes into account the number of these lives lost, it quickly becomes apparent that a much, much larger wall is needed. From Britannica:

Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war.

After seeing the wall, I was fortunate enough to enjoy spending time at the beach with my family and watch my children play in the sand. The weather was cool so there wasn't a big crowd that day... but would there have been if not for the Vietnam War? How many empty picnic tables would have been occupied that day by families had America not fought that unpopular war half a century ago? In fact, would upstate New York even have a population loss problem if America's history didn't include one major war for each of its generations? It would seem not.

War then, shouldn't be something that's celebrated or glamorized. Violence on any level is detested by God, and war is the ultimate, systematic expression of violence and murder. Instead, God's plan for humanity is that we "be fruitful, and multiply." A planet that is filled with people is a world that is filled with God's glory. If one truly believes this, they will honor human life in all of its forms; whether it be your countryman, your enemy, life in the womb, or those in nursing homes. On the opposite side of the same coin, belief in the image of God and the goodness of His plan for multiplication will cause deep sorrow at the loss of human life in any form, including the loss of an enemy.

This Memorial Day, be thankful for the country we have and remember the fallen soldiers who paid the ultimate price. But more so, be thankful for each and every person that is alive to enjoy this nation. Because ultimately, a country wouldn't be a country, if not for its people.

Visited The Wall that Heals tonight in Oneonta. Powerful, especially at night. #twth #MemorialDayWeekend #travelingwall @VVMF pic.twitter.com/Qtr7zPWnRK

— P.J. (@softball29) May 29, 2017