Monday marked the 72nd anniversary of D-Day – the day 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, turning the tide of World War II and changing the course of history. The cost of the invasion that day was high. Nine thousand Allied soldiers lost their lives. But their faithfulness to the cause allowed more than 100,000 of their fellow soldiers to begin a trek through Europe that would eventually end in the defeat of Adolf Hitler.
It was a historic day, a heroic day, and a horrific day – a day in which lives were lost and changed … forever.
As I reflect on the significance of D-Day and the victory that ultimately resulted, I can’t help but think about something my dad has often said: “We are not called to be successful, only faithful.”
Dad’s words remind me of a young West Point graduate who dreamed of overseas duty during World War I. But instead, the young officer was assigned to several posts training soldiers. Although he was greatly disappointed, he threw himself into his work and gained recognition for his organizational ability and masterful training of troops.
When his call finally came for a command in Europe, the war ended. He felt he had missed the opportunity of a lifetime and considered leaving the Army.
But his faithfulness to duty did not go unnoticed, and in 1935 he was assigned as a military aide to Gen. Douglas MacArthur. After the Pearl Harbor attack, he was assigned to the War Department in Washington, D.C., and eventually named to command the Allied European Theater of Operations.
Thirty years of largely unremarkable but faithful service prepared Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1942 for his final and highest duty as Supreme Allied Expeditionary Commander. He would oversee not only the D-Day invasion and victory over Hitler’s Nazi Germany, but would serve two terms as President of the United States.
General Eisenhower had no idea what God had planned for him down the road, but he remained faithful in the face of personal disappointment. And that is all we can do – remain faithful to the task before us. And that’s what I’m asking you to continue to do today.
Stay faithful – not only to God but also to our work together – to restore to our nation a respect for biblical values.
I can promise you that as long as I lead this organization, we will never shrink from our mission and our duty to uphold the gospel and biblical principles.
With your faithfulness on the homefront, AFA will continue on the battlefront. We’ll stand against the enemies of the one true God wherever they are – on the Internet, in Hollywood, in America’s corporate boardrooms, in Washington, D.C. and state capitols, in the courts, or in the news media. In short, wherever and whenever God calls us.
What we are counting on from you is that you remain faithful to do your part by praying, giving financially to AFA, and actively participating in our many projects and programs.
If each of us remains faithful to the particular mission God has called us to fulfill, then we will have done all that we can. Trusting in God, we’ll leave the final results in His hands.
So let us both – you and me – follow the example of Dwight Eisenhower, as well as of my dad, Don Wildmon, and continue to value faithfulness above success.
