Remembering our Veterans on Thanksgiving

Posted on: December 11, 20150

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Today is the day that we give thanks for our blessings. I’d like to target this message to those of us who may be having a hard time finding reasons to give thanks. Especially our Veterans. Veteran suicide is a very real problem, we are losing 22 veterans A DAY right now to suicide. That is a staggering number. My message today will be faith based, it has been what has given me peace in the past.
We read the following about giving thanks from Paul’s second letter to Corinth:

2 Corinthians 4:6,8-9 (AMP)
“For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah). We are hedged in (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair; We are pursued (persecuted and hard driven), but not deserted [to stand alone]; we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed;”

I relate this passage to many of my life events: My first tour to Afghanistan- where our outpost in Khost received no less than a dozen rockets a night for the first month, my first GAF’s into Baghdad- riding in a Pandur APC wondering if we’d make it down the route without hitting an IED. In the end, I had to give up my fear of death and concentrate on what was in my power to influence.
These events, though they may be insignificant to what you are going through, are examples of things that are not entirely in your realm of control. But we worry about them anyways. We allow doubt, depression, and fear to metastasize in our lives. What Paul is saying here is that you can have peace through faith. Faith that there is a guiding force and that things will work out, even if its not the way you want them to. In your moments where you are overwhelmed, have faith.

2 Corinthians 9:11-12
“You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.  This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.”

Give thanks for what is good in your life today, even if you feel it is overshadowed by the bad. Reach out to friends and family for support. Put aside differences, congregate as family whether you shared a foxhole or not. Remember, you are not alone.