08;06;40;05 – 08;06;23;28
Wendell
Welcome to podcast number eight. And what’s right around the corner is the 4th of July or Independence Day. Our topic today is, is freedom really free? I want to bring in my co-host, Dale Eudy. Welcome, Dale. How are you today?

08;06;23;14 – 08;06;10;29
Dale
I’m doing great. Thanks. It is a wonderful season of the year when we take these moments to really hold on to this aspect of freedom and what it came, the cost at which we paid to get there.

08;06;10;12 – 08;05;48;20
Wendell
Amen Amen, great time to celebrate those who have committed their lives or a portion of their life to, uh, to making sure we we continue that process. People, I think they’ll tell you, take freedom for granted. I mean, I think we’re seeing some of that in our country today. But because our country was founded so citizens could have that freedom.

08;05;48;02 – 08;05;21;21
Wendell
For generations, it’s been assumed that we will always be free That’s an assumption. But what is really freedom really mean? What’s our cost of freedom? What happens when it is taken for granted? And what’s the outcome of that cost of freedom? Hmm. Well, today we will look at the high cost of the military endeavors specifically to to make and to keep America free.

08;05;21;06 – 08;05;09;08
Wendell
And this time permits will jump into the spiritual path of freedom. Who pays for that? What’s that cost? And what do we need to do to retain the deal?

08;05;08;16 – 08;04;51;11
Dale
Well, one of the one of the things that that you’ve just put on the table for us is to understand that freedom never comes free. It’s always there with a cost. Someone’s got to do something and put something in. Call it the skin in the game or whatever to make freedom really count for us.

08;04;50;09 – 08;04;41;07
Wendell
That’s exactly right. But Dale, I know you have some military background, and I know what you’re the military. You’re never out of the military. Well, I think.

08;04;40;25 – 08;04;23;13
Dale
Everybody that’s ever served in the military always has that battle switch that gets turned on. And whether it’s defending yourself or your family or you’re you’re your property. There’s always that sense of saying, how am I going to do this and how am I going to rise to the occasion? But I am I am a not only veteran myself.

08;04;23;13 – 08;04;12;07
Dale
I’m the son of a veteran. And then I have a son who’s in the military. In fact, not many guys can say this, but I married a sailor. My wife was in the Navy. So we’re a military family. In many ways.

08;04;04;11 – 08;03;49;17
Wendell
Dale will pause for a minute to say thank you to your dad, to you, to your son, to your wife for the military support that you’ve given us and the time invested for our freedom. It’s much, much appreciated.

08;03;49;15 – 08;03;47;27
Dale
Truly our honor.

08;03;46;15 – 08;03;28;29
Wendell
Wow. So I have a concept, but you could validate it for me or not. The concept is those in the military give up their safety, their freedom to preserve freedom for everyone else.

08;03;28;08 – 08;03;27;23
Dale
You know, that’s.

08;03;27;17 – 08;03;27;08
Wendell
One of.

08;03;27;08 – 08;03;08;01
Dale
Them. I was gonna say that’s really true. And someone said this to me once and I didn’t think about this when I actually signed my induction papers many years ago. But when a person signs up to serve in the United States military, of course, today it’s an all volunteer force. But when you sign up, it is like giving a blank check.

08;03;08;01 – 08;02;44;25
Dale
You’re signing a check. The amount is not put in and you are saying to those who are in authority over all of our military, including not only the military leaders, but those who are in political office as well, what you’re saying to them? I’m I’m filling out my part of this check. I don’t know what it’s going to cost me yet, but I’ll let you fill in the amount and I’m ready.

08;02;44;21 – 08;02;43;16
Dale
No matter what it is.

08;02;42;28 – 08;02;26;18
Wendell
Well, that I really like that. That gives a great vivid picture of of the cost or the commitment. Not necessarily cost yet, because you don’t know what that’s going to be in the long run. But the commitment to be to pay whatever price it is.

08;02;25;14 – 08;01;58;00
Dale
That’s the key part of this. Again, not realizing. No one totally can understand the cost of freedom. What you do is you make that commitment that I’m ready to pay it. Whatever price it takes, you can count on me. And I think that’s what every person who takes that oath of office to serve in the United States military, that’s what they give our country that that freedom to put in, in effect, the the amount that that check is going to be someday redeemed for.

08;01;56;09 – 08;01;29;10
Wendell
I did not serve in the military. And for those of us who have not, I had asthma. They wouldn’t take me at that time. But for those who would did not serve to recognize what that kind of a commitment is, is exemplary. And it’s encouraging. And it gives us an opportunity to see life through somebody else’s eyeballs, which is I signed the check and you fill it up.

08;01;29;02 – 08;00;59;09
Wendell
You fill it up. Well, that’s commitment. That is commitment. I want to run through some stats now. Low dollars are included in this, just some of the military move moves that we’ve had over the years. World War One, for example, there were 116,708 and I’m using exact numbers because each of those represents a life and a family that paid the price for my freedom.

08;00;57;20 – 08;00;24;14
Wendell
Those were U.S. soldiers that were killed. There were a total of nine to 11 million that died worldwide. Now, much of that was from disease, not necessarily from conflict, but you get in those battle situations and disease can run rampant World War Two. 296,557 U.S. soldiers died. I mean, that’s a that’s bigger than a lot of American cities. You think about that number is just massive.

08;00;23;16 – 09;59;42;10
Wendell
67,000 were wounded. And this number blows me away as well. In the world there were between 70 and 85 million who died in World War Two. Again, some of that over 20 million of that was from disease not actual conflict. The Korean War. 36,914 U.S. soldiers died. 1.79 million served. Wow. Vietnam. The War that would never end. 1.4 million wounded. 415,000 worldwide died.

09;59;41;06 – 09;59;05;00
Wendell
58,220 U.S. soldiers died. Three to 4 million actually served the Gulf War. 694,550 served from the US. 383 died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two and a half million have served from the US. 6840 died. Now, this doesn’t include some of the wars where it’s hard to capture that data. Revolutionary War. War of 1812. Civil War. Mexican-American War. That’s just a few of them.

09;59;04;01 – 09;58;47;25
Wendell
So the toll of human lives and the commitment to stand against those who would do us harm as the cost of their whole lives is overwhelming to me. When I read through these numbers and this data. How does it strike you?

09;58;47;15 – 09;58;20;17
Dale
Well, I see it the same way again when when you hear about those and you see the memorials and everything else, you’re sometimes trapped by not knowing how many truly lost their lives. And again, life, you know, it’s it’s a life that obviously is gone. But there was a family that was impacted. And I loved the way Ronald Reagan said this when he talked about this one time at an a Veteran’s Day celebration during his term of office.

09;58;20;17 – 09;57;58;08
Dale
And he said many of these guys gave up two lives, the one that they that they gave up on the battlefield. But the one that they also gave up that we didn’t really realize was the ability to come back and be a good husband and a father and a grandfather to have that stage. And they gave up both of those, the young life, obviously, and the loss of their life in battle.

09;57;57;29 – 09;57;51;08
Dale
But they also gave up that that contribution to society that they would have made had they been able to come home.

09;57;50;10 – 09;57;29;03
Wendell
Well, that was wisdom to be able to state it that way is certainly so true. Just a quick story that you and I spoke of off line. We have some good friends. One of the guys and the guy served at Baylor for many years, and we were talking to him not too long ago. We was. And my wife and I was with his wife.

09;57;29;02 – 09;57;01;20
Wendell
And so about what’s going on in our country today, um, the military, all of those are two way to evolve to get into a short podcast here. But the emotion that immediately came to the surface with this guy and it, you know, it’s been 3040 years right since roughly I think that’s the right time from 69 to 74, something like that.

09;57;01;08 – 09;56;42;21
Wendell
Uh, as part of it went on started earlier with a longer but uh, the, the impact that it had on him and the concern he has with what appears to be a country that takes freedom for granted. You know, they take it personally.

09;56;42;11 – 09;56;20;24
Dale
I think most, most people that serve in the certainly put the go back to that term I used before some skin in the game. Most people that do that never want to look back and say that somebody squandered my investment. I think a lot of our guys that spent, you know, careers in the military feel somewhat like they you know, they don’t know the military of today.

09;56;20;24 – 09;56;07;09
Dale
In many ways. There are obviously still a lot of the same traditions, but it’s changed an awful lot and it’s become a little bit more difficult to relate, I think, for some of our old veterans to to the new military.

09;56;07;04 – 09;55;44;02
Wendell
Military. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a different mindset, certainly. And the way wars are done today is so much different than it was in World War Two. It was, you know, hand-to-hand combat for the most part. Yep. And that’s why it pays such a heavy toll. Well, well, Dale, this is I again, I saw a pause and say thank you, your family, for your service.

09;55;44;02 – 09;55;22;01
Wendell
I want to thank anybody listening that has either a military background or a military family. I have a brother in law who was in Vietnam as well, and Special Forces. And, you know, it changed his life, but he never regrets having done that because of the freedom he enjoys with his family today and his kids and now his grandkids.

09;55;21;08 – 09;55;10;14
Wendell
As tough as it is at times, and as bad as we want to make it, it’s still the greatest country on the face of the earth. And it’s a privilege to live here because of those who have paid the price for our freedom.

09;55;10;04 – 09;54;50;09
Dale
And you know, just to tag along that, I think one of the greatest things that anybody can do is if you see a veteran, honor them. A word of thanks will be at least a great starting point. But just let them know that the cost of freedom, the one that they paid for, you still honor and thank them for.

09;54;50;03 – 09;54;28;18
Wendell
Really? Amen. Amen. Yeah, it touches them. And I, you know, and see the hat or you see a vest or a jacket or a shirt. I make a beeline because, you know, I enjoy what I enjoy because they have served. Yep. And so I want to absolutely honor them. Let’s kind of turn a corner here for a little bit.

09;54;28;18 – 09;54;00;19
Wendell
Talk about spiritual freedom for just a couple of minutes. There’s a verse Galatians 513 that I think really sums this up, says, My brother, you, my brothers and sisters, we’re called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, brother. Serve one another humbly in love for the whole law or the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one commandment.

09;53;59;12 – 09;53;34;23
Wendell
Love your neighbor as yourself Yeah, that’s talking about spiritual freedom because the forgiveness of sins and the work that the Holy Spirit does in our life to to free us from our past free us from our selves, free us from our future, that we are headed down and gives us the eternity that that is with him, with Christ forever.

09;53;33;04 – 09;53;11;05
Wendell
But there are some things in there, I think, that really impact our day to day that might that can change the the nature of our country again, that can put us back where we need to. And our communities, our churches, our governments, all those things are absolute critical. And that’s just a that one law is fulfilled in keeping the one command.

09;53;11;05 – 09;53;01;21
Wendell
It says the entire laws fulfilled keep of one command, and that is love your neighbor as yourself. How does that impact you, Bill?

09;53;01;07 – 09;52;29;13
Dale
Well, you know, the way that the Apostle Paul put that you’ve been given this freedom, but don’t misuse it. And I think that’s the that is we come to this July 4th holiday. I think as all Americans we need to do, I think we should resolve in our hearts. We are not going to misuse our freedom. We’re going to use it not only to enjoy the freedom that we do have, but we’re going to use that freedom to protect it and even provide greater freedoms may be ahead of us women.

09;52;28;24 – 09;51;59;24
Wendell
Well-said. Well-said. It was wrap it up. Let me just wrap with this. With the high cost of our freedom that we enjoy in America, as well as the freedom that God has given to us spiritually, I want to encourage all of us and listeners as well to resolve to never take either freedom for granted, but to live a life of gratitude that spills into the life of our family or friends or community or workplace.

09;51;59;09 – 09;51;38;20
Wendell
And of course, our church I pray that for each of you who are listening day, I pray for you. I pray for myself. Amen. That we live a life of honor, of respect, and of humility. That causes us to really be thankful and grateful for what we have in this country and the freedoms that God has given us to enjoy.

09;51;37;26 – 09;51;37;03
Wendell
Any final word?

09;51;36;16 – 09;51;12;24
Dale
Well, have a great 4th of July, Wendell. But to all of our veterans or to all Americans, our citizens, our neighbors, our friends have a great 4th of July. And just consider this not only the spiritual freedom that you have because of the death and cost of Christ, but certainly to celebrate as a nation, the freedom that’s been procured for us through a great high price at times.

09;51;12;04 – 09;50;48;03
Wendell
Amen. Amen. Thank you for attending If you wouldn’t mind going on your podcast networks and read this, that would be tremendously, tremendously helpful, would be a favor to me. And I, I, we would appreciate it. And next time we’ll talk about intergenerational, the value of being an intergenerational relationship and how it impacts those around us. Bless you. Have a great day.