Last Monday I was in Washington DC, and had some spare time before my later-in-the-day flight back home, so I visited Arlington National Cemetery.

It’s quite a sight —  the burial ground for our nation’s soldier heroes.  400,000 bodies sleep there — gravestones as far as the eye can see.

Some say, “What a waste of precious human life!”

“A man dies … only a few circles in the water prove that he was ever there. And even they quickly disappear. And when they’re gone, he’s forgotten, without a trace, as if he’d never even existed. And that’s all.” — Wolfgang Borchert, The Outsider

But on my way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I saw engraved into a wall these words of Robert F. Kennedy:

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Then I was soon staring at the polished sentinel guarding his countless, nameless, sleeping comrades.  They’d made the ultimate sacrifice to keep free and safe my wife and her babies.

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary (Galatians 6:9).

Bobby was so right.

Thankful for daring heroes who know it.