Security at Robins Air Force Base has dared to be efficient, courteous and offendingly polite.

A few days ago, the server atmy favorite restaurant told me it was her pleasure to prepare my food.

My pharmacist gave me a good-natured, “Be well!” when I picked up a prescription.

The clerk at a store I frequent said, “Thank you for shopping with us!” after I purchased an item.

On our recent flight to Israel, multiple flight attendants thanked me for flying their airline. Perhaps it didn’t hurt that I had given a bag of chocolate to them, but I also noticed that they thanked all the other passengers, too.

And over at our own Robins Air Force Base, a security guard scanned credentials, smiled broadly and said, “Have a blessed day.”

Who would have ever dreamed that any of these greetings could be deemed “offensive” and worthy of a conversation at the Pentagon?

It is truly a strange world in which we live. One or more of our hard-working guards at Robins Air Force Base apparently has made it a practice to say, “Have a blessed day”, when greeting people at the gate.

But sure enough, someone passing through was “offended”. The complaint alleged that a “blessed-day” greeting has “religious” connotations.

Well bless his little heart.

Thankfully, further review by Air Force leaders — at the Pentagon, no less! — determined that there was nothing offensive about the blessed greeting.

It seems to me a person has to work mighty hard to be offended by a greeting meant to be pleasant and encouraging. Unfortunately, we live in a reality where many people are working very hard to be offended at traditional Christian-Judeo beliefs. And unfortunately, far too many people are quick to react by giving “offended” people whatever they want.

We are an easy target, of course. If you hurt us, we will forgive you. We will not enact Jihad if you do not believe as we believe. In fact, if you persecute us, we will pray for you.

We will smile when there are precious few reasons to do so. We will sing when our hearts are broken. We will find hope in days that look hopeless.

To those who don’t know the reason for our faith, we must seem to be living in a different world. In some ways, we are.

As scripture says, we are in the world, but not of the world. As a result, we cannot help but share the blessings we have come to know with everyone around us.

Who could contain such joy?

In the end, it all boils down to this: I hope you have a blessed day!