Have they become a burden to you?

by Chaplain Kathie


We do a fine job of sending them off to go to another country. Most of us never even have to show up to watch them leave. All we have to do is simply say they have our support. We don't even have to pay attention to what happens to them when they are doing what they were sent to do.

They don't get quit if their job gets too hard. They get to hear us say they knew what they were getting into when they joined just as they ended up hearing us say that during all other wars when so many were drafted. Our patience evaporates when the mission takes too long and costs too much money. It never seems to involved the fact so many of them are getting wounded or dying. It never seems to enter our minds how many families are waiting for them to come home and dreading them having to leave again. So much we avoid but they are ever faithful to what is asked of them.



When they are wounded, they hear the sound of the helicopter coming to their rescue. They look up as soon as they hear the sound proclaiming they have not been forgotten, they are not alone, they will not perish alone. Yet where is the sound of their rescue when they are back home, waiting for us to say to them they have not been forsaken, that we remember them?

The news reports come out about the men and women we sent to stand in our place but few of us ever pay attention.


The reports coming out about the claims still waiting to be processed and service honored, have been in our newspapers but they tell only part of the story. For every claim waiting to be honored, there is a veteran who did not make us wait to go, a man or woman who trusted that we would take care of them if they were wounded in service and one who has felt as if they are suddenly a burden to us.

This is what Job felt when he did nothing wrong, yet God allowed Satan to take away everything he had. How many of the over 10,000 veterans attempting suicide this year felt the same way?

Job 3 (New International Version)



23 Why is life given to a man
whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?

24 For sighing comes to me instead of food;
my groans pour out like water.

25 What I feared has come upon me;
what I dreaded has happened to me.

26 I have no peace, no quietness;
I have no rest, but only turmoil."




Job 6
Job
1 Then Job replied:

2 "If only my anguish could be weighed
and all my misery be placed on the scales!

3 It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas—
no wonder my words have been impetuous.

4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me,
my spirit drinks in their poison;
God's terrors are marshaled against me.

5 Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass,
or an ox bellow when it has fodder?

6 Is tasteless food eaten without salt,
or is there flavor in the white of an egg [a] ?

7 I refuse to touch it;
such food makes me ill.

8 "Oh, that I might have my request,
that God would grant what I hope for,

9 that God would be willing to crush me,
to let loose his hand and cut me off!

10 Then I would still have this consolation—
my joy in unrelenting pain—
that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

11 "What strength do I have, that I should still hope?
What prospects, that I should be patient?

12 Do I have the strength of stone?
Is my flesh bronze?

13 Do I have any power to help myself,
now that success has been driven from me?

14 "A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends,
even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,
as the streams that overflow

16 when darkened by thawing ice
and swollen with melting snow,

17 but that cease to flow in the dry season,
and in the heat vanish from their channels.

18 Caravans turn aside from their routes;
they go up into the wasteland and perish.

19 The caravans of Tema look for water,
the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

20 They are distressed, because they had been confident;
they arrive there, only to be disappointed.

21 Now you too have proved to be of no help;
you see something dreadful and are afraid.

22 Have I ever said, 'Give something on my behalf,
pay a ransom for me from your wealth,

23 deliver me from the hand of the enemy,
ransom me from the clutches of the ruthless'?

24 "Teach me, and I will be quiet;
show me where I have been wrong.

25 How painful are honest words!
But what do your arguments prove?

26 Do you mean to correct what I say,
and treat the words of a despairing man as wind?

27 You would even cast lots for the fatherless
and barter away your friend.

28 "But now be so kind as to look at me.
Would I lie to your face?

29 Relent, do not be unjust;
reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. [b]

30 Is there any wickedness on my lips?
Can my mouth not discern malice?

Job 7
1 "Does not man have hard service on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired man?

2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,
or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages,

3 so I have been allotted months of futility,
and nights of misery have been assigned to me.

4 When I lie down I think, 'How long before I get up?'
The night drags on, and I toss till dawn.

5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs,
my skin is broken and festering.

6 "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,
and they come to an end without hope.

7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath;
my eyes will never see happiness again.

8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer;
you will look for me, but I will be no more.

9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone,
so he who goes down to the grave [a] does not return.

10 He will never come to his house again;
his place will know him no more.

11 "Therefore I will not keep silent;
I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit,
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep,
that you put me under guard?

13 When I think my bed will comfort me
and my couch will ease my complaint,

14 even then you frighten me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,

15 so that I prefer strangling and death,
rather than this body of mine.

16 I despise my life; I would not live forever.
Let me alone; my days have no meaning.

17 "What is man that you make so much of him,
that you give him so much attention,

18 that you examine him every morning
and test him every moment?

19 Will you never look away from me,
or let me alone even for an instant?

20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
O watcher of men?
Why have you made me your target?
Have I become a burden to you? [b]

21 Why do you not pardon my offenses
and forgive my sins?
For I will soon lie down in the dust;
you will search for me, but I will be no more."

www.biblegateway.com

We managed to take all they had to give and then we walked away. We didn't want to hear their cries for help, acknowledge how unjust it was for them and we didn't want to stop and think they were not the one responsible for the state of their lives. We were. We were because we did not take care of them the way they thought we would.

Did they blame us? Did they regret serving? No, they say they would do it all over again no matter how much they suffer waiting for their claims to be honored, still believing this country will do the right thing for them. After all, we are great at saying it all the time. We are just terrible at living up to it.

When you hear about a PTSD claim or another veteran suffering from PTSD, think about Job because if we do not take care of them today, their pain may make them one of the over 6,000 veterans a year successful at committing suicide. Think about how much pain they are carrying feeling abandoned by God because they became a burden to us.


Now think about this tragedy;

U.S. Army had no mandatory policies for handling suicidal soldiers in Iraq


By Kathleen Miller
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 -- 10:55 am
U.S. Army commanders in Iraq had an advisory suicide prevention plan, but no mandatory steps to follow when dealing with at-risk soldiers like the one accused of killing five troops at a military mental health clinic last May, according to a review of military procedures.

Sgt. John Russell is accused of shooting and killing five soldiers after an altercation at a counseling center located on a U.S. base in Iraq five months ago.

According to the Associated Press, the report found that no Army publication provides step-by-step details to a unit on how to implement a suicide watch and that security at the Combat Stress Clinic at Camp Liberty was "inadequate."

"It paints a picture of soldier less than two months from the end of his third deployment who began to show obvious signs of unraveling weeks before the clinic shootings," the AP noted. "The report describes a man whose problems were known and who received some counseling, yet at critical times did not appear to get the help he needed."

read more here
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/army-mandatory-policies-handling-suicidal-soldiers-iraq/

Did they only deserve to die with honor the way you thought they would? When they died like this, we ignored it, covered our eyes, blocked our ears to their cries for help. Were they just too great of a burden to carry when they were not able to carry the burden for us anymore?