others

I'm not comfortable with the way so many Americans honor or military – we tend to put them on a pedestal when they're just people. There are crooks and jerks in uniform too. But one thing I do think is true about our service members – as a rule, they value something else more highly than their own lives. Usually, that's the lives of other people, and I think that's unusual. I think culturally most Americans are me-first in their actions and attitudes.

Paul again calls me to be counter-cultural in Philippians 2:3-4: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” 

That, honestly, is a trait found in most officers and NCOs in the military. But it's a trait far more prevalent in a far older institution: the church of Jesus Christ. Because only Jesus can make us truly selfless people.  

In humility, value others above myself, and look to their interests over my own. I can do it if I stay close to God. Otherwise . . . .