My dad was a career soldier. So was I. I like stories about old soldiers.
But I saw a sad one recently. A British television station was interviewing a World War II veteran. It was his 100th birthday. He was wearing his old uniform, with all his war medals. The interviewer did her best to honor him on that special day. Few of the men from WW2 are still alive, and she wanted to make it special. She asked him for his thoughts. He was free to say whatever he wanted.
What he said surprised her. He spoke about visiting WW2 graveyards, where he saw rows and rows of white crosses. Some of his friends were buried in those places. He summarized his feelings in four words: “It wasn’t worth it.”
He spoke of the sacrifices he and his friends had made and the things they had suffered. So many of them died young, having never married or raised children of their own. His voice cracked when he said their sacrifices were for nothing.
Then he gave his reasons for feeling that way. He invited the interviewer to consider their country today. The man and his buddies had gone to war to fight for freedom, but, in his view, that freedom no longer exists. The world has changed for the worse. Mass immigration had changed England and its culture. Crime was rampant. His point was that if he and his friends had known how things would turn out in England, they wouldn’t have fought and died. The blood, sweat, and tears they had shed were wasted. Would things be any worse today if they had never fought?
I am sure many would disagree with his assessment. No matter what one thinks of the current situation in England, the victory this man and his friends won in the 1940s brought at least sixty or seventy years of peace, prosperity, and freedom. The interviewer expressed her gratitude, indicating that she appreciated the sacrifice and that it made a huge difference for her and many others. I am one of those people. I am glad men like that vet did what they did.
But we need to give the man his due. Who better to decide whether the sacrifice was worth it than the one who made it? Looking back, for him, it wasn’t. The lives of his buddies were more important than the temporary things they gained for England by their deaths.
Isn’t that true of many things people do? The Lord spoke about things for which people work hard. He said that, ultimately, these things will be lost. There will be no profit in them (Mark 8:35-36). John writes that the things of this world will pass away (1 John 2:17). Peter said the same thing (2 Pet 3:10-11). Doesn’t that mean that there are things for which we sacrifice too much?
For older believers, how many of us look at some of the things we devoted time, effort, and money to in the past and say, “It wasn’t worth it”? I wonder how we will feel at the Judgment Seat of Christ (the Bema). Even if we can say that some of the things we worked for were beneficial and made our lives better for a while, will we realize at the Bema that they weren’t worth the sacrifices we made to obtain them?
Ultimately, the Lord will judge all those things. I found that vet’s comments interesting. I suppose some would say that he’s a bitter old man, longing for a version of the world that has passed away.i Maybe he is bitter. But when this world has passed away, I know I will look back on things I’ve done in my life and say, “It wasn’t worth it.
