For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11

While Memorial Day is officially about honoring the fallen heroes of the past, it can also provide purpose for future generations to maintain a perspective of sacrifice and service. In times of conflict and unrest, the future may appear daunting. And, for some, discouragement may slowly shift into disappointment with God.

Job is an example of someone whose life took a hard turn. While your circumstances may not be as dire as his, you can certainly understand his very human response in giving voice to his distress, “God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me” (Job 19:6). However, he did not stay in the mindset of disillusionment. Shortly after making the previous statement, Job adjusted his focus, stating, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the Earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26).

The multitude of heroes being commemorated today lived by a type of faith. They would not see the results of their sacrifice, but they trusted their service was not in vain, but a part of the purpose for a better tomorrow. Job exercised his faith by choosing to place his hope in God’s plan despite not having the full picture of Christ in His future human ministry of salvation.

Christ Jesus set the tone for everyone enduring unforeseen hardship: “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Pray as the United States honors heroes of the past that citizens and public officials also embrace hope in Christ for the future.