Acceptable Love

I read a column on SI.com each week called Monday Morning Quarterback. The author, Peter King, writes mostly about football but also adds interesting thoughts about other aspects of life. He often updates reader on a soldier friend currently serving in Iraq. This past week he told of how the soldier's platoon suffered their first casualty. One reader set this email to be forwarded to the sargent:

Sgt. McGuire,

I teach the middle school students at my church on Sundays and I regularly provide updates on you and your platoon as Mr. King has the chance to pass them along. I started simply by comparing biblical figure King Saul, professional athletes, and you, and I asked the kids who they would prefer to model and be when they grow up. They could be Saul, who was so jealous over David's success that Saul repeatedly tried to kill David. They could be professional athletes who whine about injuries, travel, demands placed upon them, etc., all while earning millions of dollars per year -- more than I will make in my lifetime. Or they could be Sgt. Mike McGuire, who leads a team charged with clearing a path so that others may travel on a safe road. You and your platoon embody the term 'sacrifice,' and as followers of Jesus, the kids
and I had known one example of the term. Now we know two. On behalf of the men and women who, like me, serve in the federal government, thank you for doing your job so we can do our jobs. And on behalf of the kids I teach at church, I thank you for providing them with a current and real-life example of selfless love.

- Bryan Gold, Laurel, Md.

Initially I was at a loss for words. Is it really true that there are no other examples of sacrificial love? Regardless of my ever changing views on pacifism and war I refuse to submit that soldiers are the penultimate example of Christ-like love. As I've written here previously, in regards to Pearl Harbor, I can relate to the desire to be a soldier/hero. Its sexy and culturally acceptable. Maybe that is the Sunday school teacher's struggle; that soldiering is the only culturally acceptable example of "biblical" (again ignoring just war debates), sacrificial love.

May I not be trapped into limiting my hero's and examples of Christ-like sacrificial love to those that are acceptable or popular as well.