Today Can Be Your D-Day
D-Day. In military jargon, D-Day is the day in which a military operation is to begin. There have been numerous military invasions designated as D-Day, but only one, June 6, 1944, is simply known as D-Day: the day Allied troops stormed five beaches at Normandy to initiate the liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany. Just in terms of human life alone, it was a costly invasion. Best estimates are there were 10,000 Allied casualties (wounded, killed, missing) and between 4,000 and 9,000 German casualties on that day. At the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, there are 4,414 names enshrined in bronze plaques representing those Allied troops who died on D-Day. As those troops prepared to leave the safety of the landing crafts, called Higgins Boats, their lives, and the future of the world, would be forever changed.
World War II ended eleven months later when, on May 8, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered. We know May 8, 1945 as Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day. And if you know anything about history, then you know that just eight days earlier, on April 30, Adolf Hitler, likely to avoid being captured, shot himself in the head while Eva Braun, his longtime companion and wife of less than two days, also committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule.
These days the phrase D-Day is often used to reference the start of an important occasion or activity. I recently heard a co-worker reference the start of her upcoming diet as D-Day. Throughout our own lives we have opportunities to close one chapter and open the next, many having life changing implications; a personal D-Day if you will. It could be the start of a new job, a change in careers, moving to a new city. Your weight has ballooned, and you are out of shape, so you decide to embark upon a healthier lifestyle. You have been in an abusive and destructive relationship, and you’ve decided to finally walk away, to get free, from that situation. Maybe you have dreamed of opening a cute little boutique flower shop and you finally found a store front in the newly renovated bank building downtown. You started college but had to drop out to raise your children; they have now left your nest so you can finally finish your degree and pursue that career you’ve always dreamed of. Getting married or having a baby, those are both certainly D-Day occasions.
I have had a number of D-Day moments in my own life: graduations, my own wedding and the weddings of our daughters, the birth of our children and recently, the birth of a granddaughter, stepping out into the role of a pastor, planting a church, closing a church, the day I heard the words “you have cancer,” but, none more important and life-changing than a summer day in 1986; the day I turned my life over to Jesus.
So, as we reflect upon how the world is different today because of that D-Day 77 years ago, this is a perfect time for you to look over your own life, where you’ve been, where you are today, maybe right now in a Higgins Boat, where you want to be tomorrow, and do whatever needs done to storm the beach, stare down your opposition, fight to win, and change the storyline of your life, and your legacy, forever. It always takes courage, but courage begins with the first step. During his D-Day speech in 2009, then-President Barack Obama said this: “At an hour of maximum danger, amid the bleakest of circumstances, men who thought themselves ordinary found within themselves the ability to do something extraordinary.”
In Scripture, when Joshua and his guys came up against enemy troops, and he feared doom for he and his men, here is what God said to Joshua – “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you” (Joshua 10:8).
And in that same story, when Joshua needed to encourage his men, here is what we read – “Joshua said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.’ Then Joshua put the kings to death and exposed their bodies on five poles, and they were left hanging on the poles until evening” (10:25-26).
Today can be D-Day for you; it just takes that first step! Don’t let yesterday dictate tomorrow.