Tonight I am thinking of my favorite veteran, Jim Jones, my beloved father in law. Jim was promoted to Heaven in May, 2014.
Jim and his two brothers all served in the military. Jim served in both World War II and in Korea. He won medals.
After being badly burned, he got out of his bed and went to “the front.” He knew George Patton.
I worked at the VA Medical Center for 30 years, so I heard many, many stories from veterans. But none could match Jim’s story telling. He could retell his many adventures so well, we felt as if we were there.
But his stories were all told with immense gratitude for all God had brought him through and how he saw God acting in the lives of others.
In his latter years, Jim faced other battles. A garage door fell on him and it broke his neck. He fought health issues. He suffered the loss of his wife. He had a stroke. He had to move from his hometown to another city.
But with each blow, he came back stronger than ever in his faith and optimism. He rose and went back to “the front.”
In the midst of one of the more challenging times, I reminded him that he was a soldier and he knew how to fight. He told me he let “The Man Upstairs” call the shots.
He gripped the cross he wore around his neck and said, “Prayer — that’s how we’re going to win this thing!” He was a soldier of the cross.
In the last few years of his life, Jim taught me so much about fighting the good fight through not only the words of wisdom he shared, but through living a life of surrender to his “Commanding Officer.”
I am so blessed to have loved and been loved by him. And I am so grateful he instilled in his son those same qualities. I am indeed blessed.
Timothy’s Words speak well of Jim.
I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7
