Ask for help this Christmas to fight another day

Ask for help this Christmas to fight another day
by Kathie Costos
Pointman of Winter Park
December 24, 2012

If you are a veteran and suffering inside today, please read this.

All across this nation there are veterans thinking they have run out of prayers, out of hope and out of time. They spent all they had on trying to "get over it" while praying for a miracle, but what was delivered to them was not enough to give them what they needed to fight another day of suffering.

There are at least 19 funerals being planned for today that should not have happened. Families are looking at the gifts they wrapped knowing they will never be opened by someone they loved. There is an empty pair of boots in William Busbee's home. There is an empty uniform in Army Staff Sgt. Earl Granville's home. Navy Cmdr. Job W. Price left behind a lot of questions as his death is still under investigation since it just happened Saturday.

There is a extreme sadness when members of the military survive combat to fight another day, but cannot find the support they need out of combat to fight one more day to stay alive.

Tonight families will shut off the lights of their Christmas trees, stuffed with gifts for the people they love waiting to be opened tomorrow morning. Tomorrow 19 more gifts will be left unopened.

Last night my favorite Christmas movie was on. The Bishop's Wife

Cary Grant showed up as an angel named Dudley responding to the prayers of David Niven, the Bishop confused between his pride and his desire to serve God. There was a wealthy woman he was sucking up to living with her own secrets.

"Mrs Hamilton" was not a happy woman even though she was very wealthy. She thought she could get her own way on the cathedral the Bishop wanted to build since she was paying for most of it. Later on the story we discover Mrs. Hamilton did not love the man she married, but had loved a man she sent away because he didn't have any money. While she gave away huge sums of money in her husband's name out of guilt, she had forgotten what really mattered, and that is love, true acts of charity fueled by compassion. The Bishop forgot all of that as well. Dudley reminded them of everything, changed their thinking and then vanished leaving behind no memory of him having been there accept for the angel he had given the Bishop's daughter.

While the Bishop thought Dudley had shown up to help him build his massive cathedral, it was a different House of God God had in mind. It was the houses the Bishop, his family and Mrs. Hamilton actually lived in. Within the walls of their bodies.

Dudley changed the Bishop's Christmas Eve sermon to one of remembering Christ on Christmas. The Bishop was stunned reading it, wondering where it came from in the beginning but soon he understood the true meaning of Christmas. The sermon talked about an empty stocking still hanging after stuff was bought for a list of others. The stocking we should fill for Christ is how we treat other people, not just this one day a year, but everyday.

When we pray, God sends people to answer our prayers. He doesn't just wave His hand and deliver. When people hear His voice, are willing to do, the entire world can change.

The people He can send won't come if they don't know you need them to. The healing that is possible won't happen if you do not seek it. If you try to just do what you want, the way the Bishop did, then the best way won't even be thought of. If you self-medicate instead of heal, tomorrow won't be any different than today is. If you wait to get over it the way Mrs. Hamilton did, then you will not be as happy as you could be when you open your eyes to what is really important and that is love.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is what you live with today but you can heal from it tomorrow. Many other veterans went through the same struggles you have today but they found the help they needed to heal because they didn't stop fighting. They were helped by others that understood what many others knew.

If you take nothing away from the way Christ lived, what He said and how much love was behind it all, then He cannot heal the pain you feel inside. The day we celebrate His birth is tomorrow. Don't let your family spend the day grieving for your last day. Live to fight another day and heal so you can help others do the same. Angels do live here on earth but these angels are just as human as you are. Contact Point Man Ministries or some of the other wonderful groups out there and give your family a gift that will not be forgotten but will be a living testimony of love. You still here, healing here with them.