Originally posted in 2021:
I thought I would share “a little insight” into the life of at least this one veteran… and what it’s meant (to me, alone, as I do not speak for others,) to be a veteran. The following are the majority of the portions, (with minor edits,) I wrote jointly with my year 2021 church pastor, upon only agreeing to present a “Veterans’ Day Sermon,” jointly, since I was nervous about it being my first, (one and done,) “sermon” presentation. She, graciously, agreed to read the jointly edited “God portions.” (It was only after someone approached me, during a subsequent summer and shared they still remembered the words I shared that day, I considered sharing them here.) The bold portions are the portions I referred to as, “The God portions.” May you BE open to receiving the messages within it.
Being a veteran means we know the experiences of getting off a bus, usually after traveling a long, mostly quiet bus ride to Basic Training… only to have Training Instructors IMMEDIATELY get “into our faces,” and begin barking all these questions and orders at us. (Cue the onset of the “momentary doubt” that rushed over me, “WHAT have I gotten myself into doing?!?!”) If we’re lucky, someone else “breaks” first; and, you realize it’s merely the instructors who were “playing mind games.” This was the part of the training where they “broke you down, to build you up…” into something, someone stronger than you could ever be on your own… at least, in theory.
Everyone has this same opportunity throughout life, with God. God gives us each Free Will… to respond how we choose, about anything life throws at us. Do we choose God’s Way, or our way?
At Basic Training, I can tell you, it was ALWAYS better to go with the Training Instructors’ way!
Being a veteran means you learned to do EVERYTHING a certain way… particularly, folded tee-shirts and your underclothing into perfect, little 4” squares, arranged everything into its own little individual pile, placed it into its own assigned location, each and every time… habits that followed some of us into our civilian lives where our future husbands or wives helped us realize “it’s referred to as OCD in the civilian community.” However, this OCD comes in PRETTY HANDY if I am not at home; and BECAUSE I am STILL a military-trained “creature of habit.” That means if my former housemates or partners, or a neighbor needed to borrow anything, I “walked them through” our house and guided them to exactly where the “item of need” was located!
Being a veteran, means we are intimately aware of the power in things like “attention to detail” and “following orders,” for they may one day save our lives… whether figuratively; or, literally on a battlefield. We know where we keep things around us, or “on our person,” where they will be located on our fellow soldier’s person, if we or they are ever in need… and cannot see or “do” for ourselves or themselves. We innately “know,” where we are and what we need to do. (Edit: This is later called and/or “diagnosed” as “hypervigilance” within the medical industry’s psychology and psychiatry departments within the USA… in order to shove prescriptions at you and “down your throat” as though they are Skittles Candies… because… decades of visits with military and VA-contracted counselors teach you to “ONLY discuss your experiences with THEM; then, put them into a box… “until we meet again.’”)
God teaches us these things, too, if we learn to look, listen, and follow… when asked or called. Why do we often need someone yelling in our faces, before we listen… for instance, to the whispers we know we hear from God?
Answering a “call to military service”means a veteran knows the answer to the question, “What Wondrous Love Is This,” on so many different levels. For just as God calls us to love everyone… as veterans, despite serving in different branches of service and joking around about which branch is the superior one… we know, respect, and love… we are all brothers and sisters who signed up with a promise to give up our lives to lead, follow, and protect one another… the oppressed, the downtrodden… wherever we have been called to serve. Granted, sometimes our world leaders have been misguided at times… which led to misgivings about whether veterans should be thanked for their/our service.
Galatians 5: 13-16; 22-26.
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
I can tell you from personal experience and from speaking with other veterans, (from mostly the Gulf War Era and older,) “Glory, Laud, and Honor” from others… is not why most of us have served. Most of the soldiers and veterans with whom I have taken the time to have conversations, grew up in families or situations where they personally lived in or saw the effects of domestic violence and abuses.
When young men and women learned these atrocities existed elsewhere… like the concentration camps, or in Africa, where Lucy Awate Dabi and others live and struggle daily to survive… they were called to serve… by the humanitarian mission side of our military branches.
Those who were drawn to war with “the fighting mentality,” were mostly from the eras the attacks or wars happened on our own shores; or, they heard about and/or saw the devastation of the concentration camps… and wanted to stop the extermination of masses of people who were doing nothing more than simply being or existing. God told us THAT was wrong, through our mostly Christian upbringings. The best way, or in some cases the ONLY way we thought we could help, as nineteen and twenty years old “kids,” was to serve in the military. Some of us got to pick our military occupations. Some, did not, especially those serving under the draft.
I was Blessed to have received my top choice for military occupation, a specialist in air transportation. It meant I basically worked in a military airport… doing most jobs inside it; and, outside on the flightline… associated with loading passengers, baggage, (and freight when I was deployed to the Middle East for six months.) One of the things I loved about my job was I had the freedom to pray over the passengers, baggage, cargo, and planes I loaded… not in a public manner; but, silently between God… and I.
I don’t know why I got my top job choice; but, none of my choices for bases where I wanted to get stationed. However, I believe it was ALL God-driven. I was stationed on the opposite end of the country I wanted to be; but, got to see the majestic Mt. Rainier… my family surname. Now, I have several pictures of one of the most precious, “God and me on the mountain,” meditative places for me.
God calls us and takes us wherever God knows we are wanting, needing, and able to “go deeper...” as individuals, as teams; and, as humans.
Sometimes, it takes military service to get us into a mindset of loving and serving others… while for others already knowledgeable about Christ’s love, it’s the opportunity to leave our own country’s shores to have the opportunity to meet, love, and serve those we are drawn to show God’s love… when we hear and see the opposite of God’s love, grace, and salvation are being served… that draws us to military service. Whatever the reason, I believe it is our collective mindset to love and serve everyone around us… as our brothers and sisters.
EVERY ONE, EVERYWHERE…DESERVES THAT LOVE AND WELCOMING EMBRACE!!!
I pray we can “soldier through” any of our differences to be able to grant all in the world who need this same saving grace… the love and service mindset of everyone having the right and freedom to receive amazing and abundant love, from the Divine. It’s one of the reasons I served and am humbled to be one of God’s Warriors, now. It’s in part because I learned the meaning of being an Air Force Veteran means, “Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do...” for it is the Air Force Creed. That creed is one of the reasons the Air Force was the only branch I had ever considered serving, as well as remembering an Air Force veteran who spoke in one of my classrooms... when I needed a message from the Divine, as a young student.
May we all, in this country, (and the world,) return to the mindset of lifting one another up, rather than devaluing ourselves and those around us, for what we lack. That is the true meaning of “having one another’s ‘six’ and… ‘leaving no one behind.’”
As part of a local veterans’ group, I used to go into local schools to speak with children about my experiences as a veteran. One thing I learned was… sometimes, the most profound connections I make… are NOT when I am speaking about the subject we’re told to discuss, “What it means to be a veteran.” Sometimes, it’s the background story of abuse at home by one of my parents, or being or feeling “lost,” or having suicidal thoughts during my junior year of high school… but, the fact some of my fellow students or teachers’ tiniest compliments helped me feel “HUMAN,” that showed me “CONNECTION,” in the eyes and faces of these children who asked an “off topic” question. And, it was my chance to give them (and perhaps the teachers,) a Divine message to prayerfully, profoundly, change the course of their lives. There’s a reason they were led to ask that “teaching moment” question… whether for themselves, or someone else who needed to hear that message… of hope, love, and grace. It was my chance to teach them… no matter where we are born or to whom, or what color of our skin, or whom we are called to love from within… we ALL bleed red, and we all cry clear and salty tears from our joys and our pain. It’s up to us to embrace the vulnerable spaces and conversations the Divine calls us to be in, for those in need of God. We are all “called…” to be the warriors and veterans of God’s love and mercy, every day, wherever we are.
This is God’s Good News! With Gratitude, Amen.