{"id":360,"date":"2011-04-08T16:30:43","date_gmt":"2011-04-08T20:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.churchatwestside.org\/?p=360"},"modified":"2011-04-30T09:29:27","modified_gmt":"2011-04-30T13:29:27","slug":"driving-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/driving-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving by…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fool of a man I am. I was walking yesterday at the school and a man was also there walking. I suppose I noticed in his bearing a military gait, but it was in the back of my mind I think. On one lap I saw on the front windshield of his car a decal of some sergeant\u2019s stripes that I thought might be Marine. Still nothing registered. But, I was listening to some good preaching on my iPod and trying to avoid the muddy spots on the path. This man continued to walk and I never caught up with him.<\/p>\n

As I was leaving he was still walking. When I drove past his parked car on the back license plate was a frame that said, ‘Retired’ with ‘Marine Corps’ underneath. So, my suspicions were confirmed. But, by then, I was moving away. As I drove around the lot to get back on the road, I thought that that I should have stopped and gone back and spoken to this man \u2013 unknown to me. Immediately, emotions of gratitude welled up inside and I wondered if I could do it without breaking down in front of this man, who may have stood on a wall or laid in a foxhole or stood watch at some post or saw many of his \u2018brothers\u2019 die in battle. I wanted to tell him, \u2018thanks\u2019, shake his hand, and apologize for the shameful way that my country treats him in the media. And, yet I drove on. It was too late to turn around. So, I thought I could make the loop and get him before he got into his car. But, as I got to that point, I thought he was moving toward his car and that I would not catch him in time.<\/p>\n

I missed a chance and it was right there! I missed it!<\/p>\n

I have resolved not to let this happen again. I feel angry at myself for not thinking of this sooner-while I had the chance.<\/p>\n

And yet, while recognizing the price for my personal freedom was bought and paid for by the blood of Americans, that all freedom is paid for by blood, I wonder if I drive by the One who paid with the most precious of all bloods\u2026\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fool of a man I am. I was walking yesterday at the school and a man was also there walking. I suppose I noticed in his bearing a military gait, but it was in the back of my mind I think. On one lap I saw on the front windshield of his car a decal of some sergeant\u2019s stripes that I thought might be Marine. Still nothing registered. But, I was listening to some good preaching on my iPod and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1072,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","ctfw-no-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1072"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchatwestside.org\/churcha2_wsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}