"And His Mercy Is For Those Who Fear Him From Generation To Generation."

                Fifty-three years ago this week I enlisted in the army.....and fifty years ago this week I got out. I signed up for four years but with only six months to go after Vietnam it was either reenlist or take the year drop that was offered to everyone who did what I did.
                It has been cool this past week in Western Pennsylvania....and when the first cool days of fall arrive my mind goes back to Fort Dix, New Jersey and Basic Training. What a lifestyle change that was for me! I drank milk....ate liver....and went to bed at nine o'clock. I had no hair to incessantly comb....and no worries other than not getting yelled at. I got out of the army at Fort Bragg....(the closest place to home they could send me)....bought a green MGB from a Green Beret.....and packed it up for the long road trip. The GI Bill afforded me an opportunity to go to Pitt....where I would meet my future wife. I wear my army unit pin on my ball cap to this day.
               I attended catholic church services in Vietnam on occasion....and attended St. Paul's Cathedral evening mass more regularly....(basically on the Pitt campus)....since I worked at Pitt's Hillman Library on Sundays.
               I've related this many times in these posts....so this is probably more for me to hear. I picked up a paperback New Testament one evening at the National Record Mart in Oakland....and only read little of it....but what I read of it would not let go. I wrote down in my Jim Fixx Running Log....March 7, 1981...."saw Chariots of Fire today," Something in me had changed by watching the story of Eric Liddell. He was everything that I wasn't...and he knew God. How could he know God? 
               My wife and I would attend Sunday mass....and I would gather up the catholic newspapers that were available at the back of the church....and take them home to spread out on the dining room table....searching for this God.
               Many men at work in the early 1980s were saying that they were....born again.....and I would....as was and is my inquisitive custom....explore the thoughts of friends. Billy Graham crusades were on the television....it seemed all the time....oh how America misses that today....and there was this 700 Club....both of them on one of only four channels available. Months passed....it was a blur really....and a new part of my life began. Our cable company changed all the numbering on its channels....also this week....and I was forced to surf through every single number....(there were literally hundreds!)....to find the fifteen or so of which we subscribe. Woe are us in America....for this curse upon us.  A few days ago I traveled an hour to just browse in a Christian bookstore. It was old....it was musty.....and it might itself be closing soon. When I came into the faith there were seven Christian bookstores within a five minute drive. We watched them all die....one by one....as we wanted to save a couple bucks by ordering on the Internet. That supply line of the gospel to the community is cut. We can still get our books.....who cares that there are no local Christian bookstores for people to wander in off the street....and find the same mercy that we had found.
               The greatest blessing in my life....apart from my own salvation....was raising our son in the...."discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4 ESV) I had a responsibility....a son....and his eternal soul....I could not blow this great responsibility. Today he knows his Savior....and his wife knows her Savior....and he is raising his son in the...."discipline and instruction of the Lord." I have been blessed more than Bezos and Zuckerberg and Musk and all the athletes and movie stars in the whole world combined!
              The less one understands such a great salvation as has been given us....the less thankful one will be....there is no surprise in that....but something else....the more one understands one's great salvation....the more one mourns from failures to live up to that great mercy. If you are not humbled....and almost breathless....at the glory and power and righteousness of Jesus Christ....then you do not know of His glory and power and righteousness....but in the moment after you have breathed your very last breath.....that glory and power and righteousness....will be evident....and it will then be too late to proclaim.....as did Thomas...."My Lord and my God!"....for...."it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." Hebrews 9:27 ESV)