How can returning soldiers move from mere survival to real thriving?
Within the career military, there’s a decent infrastructure for debriefing; less so for civilian soldiers and reservists. All the more need for the church to provide care. For some soldiers, this will simply mean more TLC. It’s unreasonable to expect individual soldiers to “pick themselves up by the bootstraps.” When an individual is in pieces, the church must help pick up the pieces. What special gifts to soldiers have to offer the church? In so many ways the soldier is a gift to the nation. Soldiers break our myopic vision with a global perspective. Soldiers tend to have compassionate hearts and are champions of justice and enemies of dehumanization. There is a sense in which a veteran is an ambassador. Historically, veterans have been able to open doors for missionaries. I am thinking of those scenes we see of soldiers helping locals around the world, especially in dictatorships. Veterans have historically put a high priority on the spiritual life. Returning WWII veterans spurred In
