Gas Truck Drivers!

 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:1-11)

The Bible says that I need to “count” or “reckon” myself dead. I have to grasp, apprehend, believe and apply Christ’s death and resurrection – knowing that, yes, Jesus really died and yes, he really rose- but more than that, through faith … so have I!

But how? What does that look like? What does it look like to choose, through an act of my will, to believe that truth?

When I was a pastor in Virgina years ago, I had the opportunity to have in my congregation a grizzled old WWII Army veteran who had served in a tank crew with Patton’s army. He started at the beginning of the war in North Africa, and fought his way to Sicily, across Italy all the way through the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war.  He often told tales about his crazy, funny, and harrowing experiences during those terrifying and trying days.  Near the end of his life, he shared something with me that deeply impacted my understanding of what it means to “count yourself dead.”

When he first went into combat, he was petrified with fear. It was a fear that he lived with night and day, a fear that constantly lay in the pit of his stomach, a fear that would suddenly rise up and grip him with a strangle-hold on his throat. He had to continually fight it. It was a fear of imminent death, yes, but it was an even bigger fear of never going home, never again seeing those he loved or enjoying the life he longed to live. It was real. Men were dying all around him almost daily.  During the battles, his training and survival instincts kicked in and he did his job, but when things were quiet, and he had time to think, fear poured in and paralyzed him. At one point he simply realized, “There is no way I’m going to make it through this war alive. I’m going to die. It’s settled. Quit worrying about it. I’m already as good as dead.”

Once he “reckoned himself dead” he quit fearing death! What came next was an absolute freedom to live!

“I found I wasn't afraid anymore. I even began to volunteer for hazardous duty like driving the gasoline truck! Once I decided I was dead I could start living! I was freed up from worry and from fear, even from stupid rules! During a few days when we were in Italy and we weren’t right at the front, two of my buddies and I heard about a beautiful Island just off the coast where the water was a crystal-clear turquoise blue. We decided we needed a little vacation from the war, so that night we “borrowed” a boat and sailed to the Isle of Capri! Ive never seen any place as beautiful as that place! I don't suppose I will ever see anything as perfect as that ever again. When we came back, we all got busted to buck Privates, but so what? We were already dead! To see that place was worth it! I quit living in fear and just lived! As it turned out…I made it through the war and all the way home!”

 He was almost 90 when he passed away after living a long, full life. I had the privilege to preach his funeral. I told his stories... including the story of his calndestine trip to the "Isle of Capri"...with one important postscript. Becasue he trusted Jesus for salvation on earth, he was now alive in heaven looking at a sea even more beautiful - a sea of glass, sparkling like crystal!

When I heard his war story about living his life as a “dead man” - free from worry and fear, free from legalistic observances, free to serve and even take on the hardest of jobs, I knew a little better what Paul meant when he wrote: 

 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:19-20)

“Counting” ourselves dead, means reckoning our old identity - our old sinful self - dead too, taking up that cross daily, putting to death the old man, enabling us to fearlessly live out the new life God has given us – a new life with a new pupose and new destiny!

(P.S. Some of you reading this knew this veteran that I've honored herein...

Curtis Schools Sr., US Army, Mechaniscville, VA! Curtis Sr. is not in the photo above, but it is an historical picture of a tank and crew like his during the Battle of the Bulge.)

Happy and Blessed Veterans' Day to All who Served!