Wednesday, June 18, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Soldier
God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.
Dad had been a soldier; he knew what it meant to stand up and be strong against those defined to be your enemy. Years later, when he sometimes chose not to stand up like that, I imagine he felt weak and wrong at first, those emotions shadowing him awhile until he remembered the abundance he had been given, day by day, year by year.
Gradually he surrounded himself with others who heard the same inner voice:
When you give, don’t blow a trumpet to let everyone know.
When you pray, go into your inner room and pray in secret.
When you fast, let no one know except your heavenly Father, who sees what is hidden.
Be careful at all times not to perform righteous deeds so that others will see them and admire you.
After the second world war ticker tape parades lauded the victors. They marched in Paris and in New York and all the girls were in love and wanted to kiss them. Back home in Illinois or Iowa or wherever, when they wore their uniforms the neighbors watched them walk along the street, admiring them, imagining the battles they’d been in. Thank you for your service, they would say … as we still say. I don’t know how Dad responded to all of that. He didn’t talk much about it then or ever.
Instead he studied accounting at the U of I and eventually became a farmer alongside his own dad and bought Holsteins to milk at 4 am and 4pm every day of the year. Since he worked hard and chose good cows, his herd won prizes for rich and plentiful milk. A big tank truck picked up their milk twice a week, sometimes more. Once a local congressman had a few publicity pictures taken while he sat on a three legged stool low under a cow, squirting white milk into the bucket, smiling at the camera. Dad smiled too, off to the side.
The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will increase the harvest of your righteousness.
Dad did not begrudge the politician his moment in the Holstein sun; at least I don’t think he did. He understood people better than to judge them for the actions they felt forced into by their need for votes. He had too gentle a spirit, too good a heart.
You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord.
On a sunny Sunday morning Mom got on me for not cleaning manure off my shoes before we went to church. It was a communion Sunday – once a month for our Lutheran Missouri Synod congregation. We walked to the altar, row by row, and knelt to receive the body and blood of Jesus. And of course when we knelt, the soles of our shoes kind of stood out for all to see, especially when they weren’t exactly clean.
I don’t know who told Mom what they saw, probably my grandma, who might have been laughing just a little. Mom didn’t laugh. I think Dad just kept quiet, knowing this would not be a good time to talk about the soles of his own shoes, not always exactly clean themselves. He just looked straight ahead at the road, and kept on driving.
Light shines through the darkness for the upright … his posterity shall be mighty upon the earth.
 (2 Corinthians 9, Psalm 112, John 14, Matthew 6)
(posted at davesandel.net)
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June 18, 2025
The politician was Ed Madigan. He was in a milking contest and had never milked a cow. I had one cow, Carrot, who he learned on. He caught on to it, but the cow stepped in the bucket of milk, that day ! He also lost the milking contest, but won the election. He later became the Secretary of Agriculture for the whole country. Loved the story about manure on your shoes ! Especially about Dad not saying a word ! Love, John