This is another gem from Papa Roy, another Chaplain with the IFOC sending out daily reminders of God's love to the Chaplains in the group. There are not many people considering the needs of Chaplains and the struggles we face, but we too suffer with questions that cannot be answered, downtrodden spirits and often, a sense of hopelessness. While all of these aspects of being human are eroded because of our faith and understanding of God's love, we are after all, only human as well.
Good morning, Friends!
We must be tender-hearted
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.
Men are to be Tender Warriors. We are to exhibit the character and nature of Jesus Christ – firm, courageous and strong, yet compassionate and loving. In some ways, there might seem to be a paradox in this calling. But when properly modeled and taught, young men can embrace a vision of Christ-centered manhood that will bless their families, churches, communities and our nation. (Jeff Purkiss)
Our Heavenly Daddy Reminds Us: "Be used by all, by the lowest and the smallest. How best can you serve? Let that be your daily seeking."
In God we trust: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” –(Deuteronomy 6:5)
Papa Roy
One last thought: Let all that you do be done with love: All the watching, all the standing fast, all the bravery, and all the strength the Corinthian Christians might show meant nothing without love. They were called to do all those things in a meek, humble spirit of love. (David Guzik)
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
- Romans 12:12
When I read this I could not help but think of what I've been trying to get across to the military and the VA about PTSD. "Men are to be tender warriors" is perfectly fitting. While I doubt Papa Roy intended it to be a reflection of our military warriors, this is the condition that causes them to suffer the most. No one in power believes me but the veterans and their families do.
God is God no matter what faith they claim as their own. Christians of all denominations, Jews and Muslims all turn to God and have questions for God while we walk on this earth and His spirit lives within us. When you read the Bible, focusing on what is said by God or Christ, it is easy to see that the Bible is a love letter from God. The rest is the notion of man. If you want to see how wrong people have been about what God wanted there are glowing examples of it throughout the Bible. Moses got a lot wrong and when you read Genesis, you'll see that what He thought and what God intended did not always meet. We also see it repeated in the account of St. Paul from the time he hunted down Christians and carried the name of Saul of Tarsus. He believed he was right, understood what God wanted and was serving God, only to find out he was totally wrong. When we misunderstand God, we suffer.
"Tender warriors" is the basis for the vast majority of the PTSD wounded. They are caring, loving, sensitive, empathetic while being brave and courageous enough to be willing to lay down their lives for the sake of someone else. Think about it. What good would it do to be able to think of others without having the courage to do anything about it? Many, because of their own pain, will not see the kind of courage it took to fight the battles while in the kind of pain they were carrying. They do not see how brave they were to carry on despite the nightmares and flashbacks draining them, the countless hours on alert, endless days without the comforts the rest of us enjoy, enduring melting heat or freezing cold, all for the sake of others.
After what they witness, the worst in man when they are at war, it is easy to wonder where God is, why He allows so much death, destruction and suffering. They serve the nation and follow orders into the hell of combat as trained soldiers and Marines, but no one can train them to stop being human. They enter into the military with all they were born with embedded in their soul. Their character, their abilities and shortcomings all go into who and what they are. Their faith and understanding of God rest within their core and with each strike of trauma they are wounded, each to his own level. No one walks away the same way they entered into combat. Each event weights heavily on their shoulders. The depth of their wound depends on the tenderness of their heart.
PTSD was called a lot of things throughout the centuries of man walking this planet of ours. Nostalgia, Soldier's Heart, Shell Shock and then arriving at Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the Vietnam War. Soldier's Heart seems the most fitting label for this wound. Science, being what science is, avoids what they cannot see yet I believe they have found where the soul lives in each of us. They have found the area of the brain where emotions stem from. This area changes when PTSD sets in. We consider the emotions to live within the heart of man, but that thought came before science was able to understand how the human mind functions. So, Soldier's Heart came into the dialog of explaining what humans have endured since the beginning of time.
Take traumatic events, especially in combat, with individuals, all having different cores/foundations of their soul. One may tend to be more self-centered. One may tend to be a blend of self-centeredness and compassionate. Yet it is the one gifted with empathy that is wounded the deepest because they carry away the pain of others along with their own. They confuse this pain they carry with being not strong enough, brave enough, tough enough because they look at others standing strong while they feel they are dying inside. They cannot see how they have been blessed with this soul because of the pain. They do not understand that God has placed on this earth all different kinds of gifts within us and each for it's own purpose.
What would this world of our be like if everyone was centered only on themselves? Would there be anyone working in hospitals? Would anyone be trying to cure diseases? Would there be any police officers or firefighters? In times of tragedy, would there be anyone coming to help? This world of ours would not have lasted as long as it has if there had not been the blessed with tender hearts.
The warriors, those among us ready, willing and able to set themselves aside for what is needed are the most gifted of all of us. We may have tender hearts but our gift of courage is so limited we are not brave enough to do what they do. We are not able to enter into the military, the National Guards, police departments, fire departments or any of the other fields that would require us to put our lives on the line for the sake of others. This the PTSD warrior cannot see because no one told them.
PTSD is caused by an outside force, not created within. It strikes the soul of the merciful. Until scientist understand what causes PTSD, they will never be able to treat it effectively enough and our troops along with our veterans will suffer needlessly. The residual outcome also prolongs the healing of the rest of us. Had it not been for the warriors coming back from Vietnam, nothing would have been done researching PTSD, so the rest of us, enduring after trauma, wounded by events out of the normal, out of our control, would still be left on our own to suffer without help, being degraded by the judgment of others and abandoned to suffer in silence.
