Opus 2018-133: Remember Day

Sunday we visited a church we had never attended before.  I am out of town and so this would be normal.  I forgot that it was Memorial Day weekend and pastors always feel a need to do something.  When he asked for all veterans to come forward I was of mixed emotions.  No one would know the difference except my family.  Later my son said he wondered if I would get up and go.  At the same time I am not ashamed of my service and it is an important time. 

So I joined the old guys shuffling to the front.  They prayed for those who had not come home from the nations wars, for those who had and were injured and for those still serving.  It didn’t hurt me to participate.

I find times like that mildly embarrassing.  I am a veteran.  I served in Vietnam and never felt any shame about that.  Okay.  You are welcome.  At the same time I don’t think I should be lumped together with the warriors.  Although I was in a war zone and did go to places where people had died and I could have died, I was never in that daily atmosphere of the battlefield.  I was never shot at.  Although I did my service I did not know the terror that many felt.  I wish there was a way that we could somehow honor those warriors for what they went through.

War is terrible, but until Jesus returns it will at times be necessary.  There are bullies and bully nations who will never back down from aggression and intimidation until someone comes along and makes their behavior too painful to continue.  We now have an all volunteer military.  I hope and pray that we never have another need for universal conscription.

It is good to remember those who have fallen.  I think it is even more important to care for the families of those in current service and pray for those on active duty.  Those of us who came home healthy and went on with life should be aware of their sacrifice more than others.

homo unius libri