John,

Each Memorial Day, I reflect on the service members who gave everything for our country. I also think about the men and women who come home from war with scars seen and unseen, too many of whom succumb to those wounds after they’ve left the battlefield.

The quote I like to share on Memorial Day is the inscription above the World War I Memorial in my college church:

“While a bright future beckoned, they freely gave their lives and fondest hopes for us and our allies that we might learn from them courage in peace to spend our lives making a better world for others.”

I find these words both beautiful and inspiring, a solemn memorial to those who gave everything and a call to action for those of us still here.

However you choose to spend your Memorial Day, in these strange and uncertain times, please join me in taking a moment to consider how each of us can find the courage to serve—to serve our friends, our families, our communities, our country, and our world. And in so doing, to do our best to live up to the values for which our fallen heroes gave their lives.

-Seth