Faith of Our Fathers

My grandfather, David Meister was thrown into prison for his faith. The Apostolic Christian faith believes all life is sacred, even the lives of our enemy and he would not agree to fight, carry a gun or shoot anyone. He was taken to the prison at Leavenworth Kansas. He was twice told he would be taken before the firing squad unless he agreed to carry a gun, and twice he stood in front of the firing squad, blindfolded, heard the guns cock, then heard the guns went off. He was amazed to find himself alive both times this happened. When they realized he would not give in and agree to fight, he was sentenced to life. Life in prison at that time was not easy, he was a young man and the sentence was hard labor for the rest of his life. He was marched to work at a dairy farm every morning early then marched back into the prison at night. His cell was filthy and every evening as he would lie on the cot and the lights went out bed bugs would drop like flies onto the bed and start biting. One of the things he confessed to us later was he that stole some soap powder from the dairy farm and tried to fill the cracks of his prison cell to stop the bed bugs. He always felt bad about that theft. His life was miserable but he told us it wasn’t as bad as what Jesus went through for him. When the war was over, they took him before the judge and told him his sentence was no longer life but he was now sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. He went back to Leavenworth euphoric, thinking someday he would actually be out of prison. It wasn’t long after that, the guards came and let him out. He was then considered a convicted felon and was never allowed to vote. Grandpa Meister grieved over this and for years some of his children and grand children tried to get the federal government to give him a full pardon but this never happened in his lifetime.
Tonight in church we sang Faith of our Fathers, every time we sing this song I remember Grandpa Meister and what he went through. Would we be willing to do the same? Is our faith as strong? How easy we have it today and how lightly sometimes we take our faith. As young children hearing his story when ever he would speak of the prison we would hear the word Leavenworth and cringe. Today we send Bibles and Bible studies to a prison to Leavenworth and each time I see the name on the address, my imagination comes alive, seeing my grandfather as a young man bravely standing for his faith in front of the firing squad.
All you Meister kids and grandkids, Remember what your great Grandfather did for his faith. Do NOT FORGET what a heritage you have. Will you treat your faith lightly, doing the least or will you walk the second mile? What kind of example will you be for YOUR CHILDREN and GRAND CHILDREN? Will you tell them about your ancestor or would you prefer NOT TO REMEMBER. Grandpa Meister was willing to die for his faith.