Of Memorial Day, Good Guys and Eagles of Faith

Enjoy Memorial Day holiday weekend, my friends, and also remember the fallen members of the British, French, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and all Allied armed forces who not only gave their souls for their families, mates and homelands…but also for a common cause which we all shared, which I still believe was basically Good over Evil. Maybe it’s not fashionable nowadays to label one opposing aggressive force as “evil”, or to even admit that there is such a thing as “the good guys” anymore. I guess that might make me old-fashioned, but judging by all that’s decent and humane in the history of civilized intent, I still believe our Allied brothers and sisters died for the cause of goodness.

Truth be told, the Allied campaign in WWII could be compared to your team’s outlasting a very tough opponent in a 4-quarter football game that was threatening to go into overtime. Frankly, we were losing that war on both the European and Pacific fronts heading into the second quarter, and some might say well into the second half. It took some major comeback efforts from the Allied offense, defense and special teams divisions as a unified whole to finally tie the bastards and then take the lead late in the 4th quarter.

I don’t mean to trivialize real-life sacrifices with a football analogy—but the comparison is there to be had. War is a game to some generals—until it isn’t. It sure isn’t a game at all when troops and civilians are taking major casualties. It was no game when London and other British cities were getting hammered nightly by Nazi Luftwaffe bombers for 57 consecutive days in 1940. To this day, the term “blitz” in football must make many English fans cringe.

To keep it simple, I’ll just say it takes a good team with the best of motivations to weather an early onslaught and keep their heads in the long-term game plan. I want to honor the Allied men and women who gave their lives to the notion that “the good guys” can indeed make a comeback after a rough start. Sometimes the only way to win is to extend the game as long as possible. I’d like to think the spirits of our fallen Allied heroes surely know by now how much they contributed to winning that damnable war by extending the game. I’d like to think they would say surely today it was for a good cause.
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I’m not one to push religion down anyone’s throat. Everyone’s gotta come to terms with their own higher power—eventually.

But when you see the growing number of Philadelphia Eagles players who have signed up for the “Men of Faith” movement, it starts me to wondering whether I am doing enough in my own personal life to achieve a higher spiritual purpose?

That’s why I couldn’t turn away from this story about a goodwill trip taken by a couple of Eagles players to Haiti last week— a story that was basically buried in the media, but once found you couldn’t ignore it:

Jordan Matthews and Carson Wentz went on a weekend-long mission to Port-au-Prince, Haiti over a week ago to help serve the ravaged population there.

Matthews and Wentz traveled with Kyle Horner, the lead pastor at Connect Church in Cherry Hill, New Jersey where the players worship. Horner works with Mission of Hope, a Christian organization that seeks transformative change for the people of Haiti. Back in the fall, Horner spoke with Trey Burton, another member of the church, about joining a mission to the island nation. Ultimately, Burton was unable to attend due to an illness.

“I felt called that I needed to go serve and find a way, and get myself out there, get out of my comfort zone,” Wentz said of his first trip to Haiti.

I’m so proud of these guys. Both these guys, Wentz and Matthews, are grounded in their faith. So is Burton.

There’s a short video and some personal observations of their trip on tape here. Some of these accounts and images documenting Matthews’ and Wentz’ work in Haiti profoundly affected me:

Go behind the scenes of the trip. Click here