Veterans’ Day Reflections
by Dr. Michael J. Wilkins
Biola University Chapel, November 11, 2009
On behalf of all our veterans, thank you for your recognition of the sacrifice that men and women have made for the freedoms that you and I enjoy today.
Young men and women have knowingly, perhaps not always with full consciousness of the realities of war, chosen as their path of duty to put their lives in jeopardy to protect those whom they love, and those of us whom they will never meet. And your act of honoring them for their sacrifice, however small your recognition may seem, can do immeasurable good in restoring their soul to health.
You and I, as disciples of Jesus, are citizens of two realms. We are first and foremost citizens of the kingdom of God, and we are members of the body of Christ, the church. But we are likewise citizens of an earthly realm, which for most of here today is the United States of America. The Bible is clear that my priority is to God, but also clear that God is sovereignly in control of history and nations and leaders, and my responsibility is to find appropriate ways of serving God by praying for and giving service to my earthly citizenship.
Young men and women, perhaps even some sitting here, have been changed by their experience of serving their country in combat. Today we have the opportunity to honor and encourage and support those who have experienced a very unique form of trauma. It is no small matter to say that war is hell. And men and women who have experienced that hell often feel as though others simply cannot understand what they have experienced.
They often feel alone and alienated, often angry and bitter at the way in which war has robbed them of their youth and their innocent experience of the good of life. War changes people. But the simple act of saying “thank you” to a veteran can continue the work of healing, and continue restoring them to a state of normal functioning here at home.
Forty years ago this very day I was patrolling the jungles and rice paddies and villages in Viet Nam on search and destroy missions with an airborne infantry combat unit. I was only nineteen years old, yet as my wife would later say, I had become a very old man in a young man’s body.
But earlier this year I had the opportunity to return to Viet Nam to film a documentary that was intended to help veterans of any war, and especially now of Iraq and Afghanistan, to recover from the trauma of war. Two of us, one an ex-Marine and me as an ex-Army paratrooper, were asked to retrace our combat experiences, relive the emotions and terror and then try to recount how we had recovered.
As I retraced my actual experiences of war, I was reminded deeply of the horror of war, but reminded even more deeply of the healing power of Jesus through his Spirit. And I also thought of some very important people, such as my wife of nearly 38 years, whom Jesus used to enter into my world and experiences, to try to bring healing. A veteran needs to know that even if others can’t fully understand what they have experienced, there are people who care, and who want to be used by God to bring recovery from the horror of war.
One of the most important things that you can say to a veteran is “thank you.” There is certainly room for debate about the justness of any particular war. But young military men and women do not make policy nor determine international relations. They are simply in their own way trying to serve you, and they have helped give to us the freedom to proclaim the real good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
One very real difference from forty years ago is that today our nation is rightly saying thank you to veterans. Forty years ago the majority was silenced by a vocal minority. Ideological debates extended to the veterans, and they were made to feel as though they were the enemy. There are and should be stark differences of opinion related to the United States’ role in foreign affairs. You have many means of expressing those differences of opinion. But today where I am most proud of my fellow citizens of this country is that they support the troops, even if they question the wars.
In whatever way that you can, think of a veteran of a war and say thank you. It will in some small measure help them to know that what they have experienced has been worth their sacrifice.
So please join me in thanking and praying for our veterans. Please stand in their honor, and join me as we uphold our veterans in prayer.