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Wednesday (tomorrow) is Veterans Day, 2009. It's fitting for us as a free people to publically and intentionally acknowledge, thank and bless those men and women who have paid a heavy price to insure our liberty. Freedom, as they say, is never free. To all the veterans, we thank you.

My wife's father, Al, is 88 years old. He served in WWII in the South Pacific and endured unspeakable horrors, including, months of near hand to hand combat and a life and death battle with malaria. Few of us can comprehend the pain combat soldiers like Al have borne. We may not know; but we can express our gratitude.

The cost is not so distant as WWII. Every day vets of more immediate wars in the Middle East are returning to attempt to embrace a new destiny after their military service. To them and their families we also express our gratitude. The horrible events at Fr. Hood this week reminds us just how dangerous their lives are, and how fragile our peace remains.

For all our efforts to say "thanks" and all our commitment to help our vets recover their lives once they return (and God knows we must do all we can!) in the end we cannot do enough. No governmental service can repay all they've lost. No holiday in their honor can make up for the hours lost, the innocence lost, the loves, limbs and lives lost. We cannot do enough. "Thank you" is too easy and too slight a return.

But we can pray for our vets. We can ask God to make up the balance, to cover the debts we as a society (often ungrateful) can never make up. We can pray and ask for blessings beyond our human treasure. Join me, and together let's bless our vets.

"God we thank you for commissioning men and women in the defense of freedom. We honor those who honor and protect us, in many cases laying down their lives that we might live free to pursue our own destiny. Every soldier takes their oath knowing they may be called upon to pay the ultimate sacrifice. Lord, we cannot repay this gift they give us. For those who have suffered as a result of their sacrifice, we ask for supernatural healing, favor, peace, and in some cases, forgetfulness. Lift from them the cares and burdens of violence. When they return home, give them opportunities to fulfill their own potentials and dreams. Open doors for them, even when some doors are closed. God, Bless our veterans. We pray this in Jesus."

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I'm holding a jagged piece of concrete, about the size of hand. One side Is flat, and covered with brilliant blue paint, the other porous and broken. 20 years ago today someone, among tens of thousands of jubilant Germans took a sledge hammer to the Berlin Wall and this particular piece broke free. A few months later it arrived in the mail sent to me by a friend living in Berlin at the time. Today, along with the rest of the free world, I'm remembering the miracle.

The blue paint indicates that this particular section of the Berlin Wall faced the west side. West Berliners had made the Wall a kind of shrine to the hope of freedom and reconciliation. They covered their side of the barrier with graffiti, some political, some deeply personal. Rally cries of liberation had been etched beside the names of friends and family who, though no more than ten feet away in real space remained a world apart. Did this small smudge of blue paint once represent the name of someone's sister? Did it once serve as part of a spray painted word, "Freedom!"? Was it a sliver of a prayer, "God, save us!"?

I don't know the specific story behind this real "piece" of history, but I cherish it as a reminder that impossible walls can come down, that God does do miracles, that barriers to destiny, though they stand for decades, can, in a moment, the right moment, fall to dust without a gunshot. The breach can and will be spanned.

I've had Berlin Walls in my own life, spans of rocky barriers that have divided me from people I love, from God's destiny for me, from a full and complete relationship with God himself. But that's now past. At one specific point in my life, one miracle-day when it seemed most improbable, God lifted the oppression and I had courage and capacity to take a hammer to the wall. When I did, down it came. I can say it straight: I have been reconciled by God's grace in the power of Jesus Christ. I no longer have any excuse for any fragment of slavery! As Paul the Apostle put it, "The one who Jesus has set free is free indeed!" Sure, at times I still retreat behind lines of separation. I hide from love and accountability and intimacy. But the truth of the matter is that I now live in a post-wall era. Any wall in my life is one I imagine and choose. I'm a free agent.

There's a great ancient song in the Old Testament that relays this message and articulates my thanks for The freedom I've been granted. It's Psalm 103. It begins: "Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits..." And one of the benefits mentioned... "He redeems my life from the pit." There it is. Said and done. Sealed and delivered. God has lifted me out of the prison of the pit of emptiness. He's broken down the walls robbing me from opportunity and freedom. Liberty is a done deal. And my role now is simply, "Don't forget it!" When I remember to say "Thank you, God, for setting me free," I'm remembering that freedom is my present state.

"God, thank you that 20 years ago you delivered a miracle and empowered freedom-loving people to break down the Berlin Wall. Thank you for the courage this gives us to believe that walls in our lives can come down. Thank you too you have already accomplished the 'blows' to the biggest barrier - the span of hard rock that has separated us from you. Thank you that in Jesus you have already 'redeemed our lives from the pit.' Help us to remember what this cost you, and the benefits you deliver to us in the process. Help us now to appropriate the gift of freedom we have been given. Help us to nurture the relationships we've been granted and the tasks that give us meaning and advance your purposes in the world. God, we're free! In Jesus was say 'Thank you!'

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Today it was announced that the unemployment rate hit 10.2%, the highest it has been since April 1983. This is startling news since it would seem that if we are crawling out of the recession less jobs would be lost. Unfortunately that is not the case as 190,000 jobs have been lost in October. Today we pray for everyone affect by the unemployment rate.

Heavenly Father,

Today we put our trust not in the economic system of the world, and not in soaring unemployment rates, but in God. Though these times bring forth uncertainty we trust in the certainty that God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory. Help us not fear but instead cleave to you and believe that all things work for the good of those who love you. Your word in Jeremiah 29:11 said, "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." So we affirm that verse in our lives and walk forward believing that you want us to be prosperous in every dimension that prosperity can exist. We affirm that you have come to give us a hope and a future knowing that the future you have in store for us far exceeds anything we can conceive. Let us, according to Romans 12:12, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." We know that this too shall pass us and we will be restored to better than we were before this recession hit us. So we ask for the capacity to put all our trust into you and your plan at this time. Be Jehovah Jireh, a provider for those who are unemployed and be a comforter for those who are concerned about their job stability. Be who you need to be in the lives of all who need you. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

11 have been killed and 31 injured in a mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas. I submit this prayer for the family and friends of the victims who will be receiving news about their loved ones. Please pray and share your prayers.

Heavenly Father,

I come to you asking that you would comfort the family and friends of the victims of the Fort Hood shootings. Meet each of these people at the point of their need and speak the words they need to hear in order to be comforted at this moment. Let the families and friends bind together and be strengthened as they mourn the untimely passing of their loved ones. And for those who are injured, be in the hospital room with them right now. Be at their bedside and hold their hands. Impart healing energy into their room and do what you do best as Jehovah Rophe, the God who heals stitch by stitch. Be with their loved ones who are in hospital waiting rooms awaiting news. Be with the doctors who will treat them, giving those doctors knowledge, wisdom and discernment. Let everyone who will and can pray for the recovery of those who are wounded, the comfort of those who are mourning and even the remorse for the shooters. I pray all of these things in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus, Amen.  

Bill Seebeck won $166 million dollars in a $4 slot at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa on Sunday but he's none the richer. The would-be millionaire pulled the level and bells started ringing and the figure $166,666,666.65 appeared on the jackpot screen. Yreka!  

It was not to be. According to officials at the casino the slot machine malfunctioned and accordingly they say they are under no obligation to pay the prize, saying that the maximum win on this machine is an unimpressive $90,000. They attempted to get Seebeck to sign a release denying any right to recover any award. He refused.

So, prize or no prize?

Is there a moral in this tale of dashed ecstasy? Allow me to put a spiritual spin on it and flip it in exactly the opposite direction. This month we're posting Thanksgiving prayers. In Psalm 103 David, the singer-king writes a song of praise and thanks to God. He tells himself to "not forget God's benefits." We're prone to that, to neglecting to appropriate the treasures that are really ours. Seebeck's problem is that the thought he had a treasure that wasn't really his; our problem is that we forget we have a treasure that is actually ours!

Thanksgiving is about pausing for an audit of our life, assessing the treasures that God has already given us, then voicing our thanks for those gifts. Once we're thankful, we're free to partake. We pray; we eat! That's how it works on Thanksgiving; that should be how it works everyday!

I want to forget about running after make-believe jackpots; I'll cash the checks of true wealth already sitting in my hand, signed, sealed and delivered by God!

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