Freedom's Price

This story from The Patriot's Almanac reminds us of the price that many of our founding father's paid for our nation to win it's independence.

In October of 1781, General Cornwallis marched his British troops into Yorktown. The patriots to the south had wreaked havoc on his redcoat army, and he was hoping to rendezvous with the British Navy on Chesapeake Bay.

American and French troops, however, anticipating Cornwallis's plan, pounded them with cannon fire, while the French fleet cut off escape by sea. The British found themselves trapped.

Thomas Nelson, then governor of Virginia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was fighting with the patriots firing the cannons in Yorktown. Gathering the men, he pointed to a beautiful brick home. "That is my home," he explained. "It is the best one in town. And, because of that, Lord Cornwallis has almost certainly set up the British headquarters inside."

And he told the American artillerymen to open fire on his own house.

They did. As the story goes, the very first cannonball shot at Mr. Nelson's house sailed right through the large dining room window and landed on the table where several British officers were eating.

On October 19, as the British troops surrendered, the Redcoat band played the song, "The World Turned Upside Down." The song was apt. The world's greatest super-power had just been defeated by an army that couldn't afford to put shoes on its soldiers' feet.

Sometimes to have a life of freedom in the future, we must let go of what we have and where we are in the present.  Jesus spoke of his kingdom being like a pearl of great price that a merchant went and sold all he had so he could possess.  That pearl was worth more than all he had and he could see it.  Sometimes the payoff to the sacrifice is not so clear.  We can learn a lesson from Thomas Nelson, to be free, we must be willing to pay the price.  We must let go of our present for the future God has for us. 

Enjoy Independence Day this week.

For the journey...

Tim

Source: Bill Bennett, The American Patriot's Almanac (Thomas Nelson, 2008), p. 408.