The Impossible Dream
There is only one strong, safe, and secure place for me; it’s in God alone and I love him! He’s the one who gives me strength and skill for the battle. He’s my shelter of love and my fortress of faith, who wraps himself around me as a secure shield. I hide myself in this one who subdues enemies before me. Psalm 144:1-2 The Passion Translation
To Run Where The Brave Dare Not Go…
Every time I hear This song, “The Impossible Dream”, it stirs my heart of compassion for our veterans, our military and their families. July 4th, Veterans day, Memorial Day, just a few of days that we specifically think about and honor, thank all those who sacrifice much to service, defend and constantly protect our freedom, guarding the inviolability of our liberty. We owe them a debt, we can’t repay. They run into battle, a battle we would run from, they are shot at every single day, by an enemy who just wants to kill, steal and destroy without any respect for life. These Veterans knew and our military know the atrocities of war, they fight and fought for a glorious quest of defending our freedom. They are and were willing to give their lives for this liberty, giving their last ounce of courage, fighting and reaching for the impossible dream of justice, freedom and liberty for all. For our freedom, some gave all, all gave some.
The World Is Better For This…
Unlike a civilian, as military family members, we understand more and most the honor due to our military service men and women and our veterans. We strive every single day to love them, serve them, and encourage them, because we are acquainted with the everyday sacrifices and challenges of the military life. It is not a specific day that we remember them, it is an everyday, with lifelong heart of thanks, honor and awe for us, the military family.
To Right The Unrightable Wrong…
Freedom isn’t free as so many people think and take its liberty for granted. I implore you as a military mom not to take your freedom for granted, someone has paid the price for it. Use your liberty to be a person of unconditional love, tolerance, fairness, justice, lawfulness, respect, and honor. Use your independence to seed into the freedom of this country with an excellence of civility. So, yes, I can’t hear this song without tears streaming down my face, because I am a military mom, daughter, aunt, cousin, granddaughter, sister, all theses roles I have known in my life time, as our military family gladly continues to serve and pay the cost for this country’s freedom, with its incredible men and women of the military.
“The very nature of the purpose of the military is rooted in the nature of God. He desires to rescue us from evil, sin, and death. If we walk with Him and allow Him to teach us, He will show us how to do the same for others.” David Preston
Those in authority are God’s servants for the good of society. But if you break the law, you have reason to be alarmed, for they are God’s agents of punishment to bring criminals to justice. Why do you think they carry weapons? 5 You are compelled to obey them, not just to avoid punishment, but because you want to live with a clean conscience. Romans 13:4-5 TPT
One Man Scorned And Covered With Scars, Still Strove With His Last Ounce Of Courage…
Jesus, the model for every servant warrior, reached for the unreachable, that impossible which mankind could not achieve. The greatest transformation of our freedom began when Jesus Christ, came to us. The King of Heaven, gave up His kingly rights and came in human form, on mission for His Father God, He came to die our death, so we could freely live His life. He became one of us, human, with a human condition to experience in the fullest degree, our pain, our suffering, our joys, our grief and our full humanity. He came and fought the good fight of faith to defeat death, to be the Victorious Servant Warrior, Who would change up our destiny forever. Jesus ushered in the greatest transformation mankind would ever know. This Life Giver, is the One we put our faith in, He is the One Who feeds our courage and strength. Jesus, Who is the foundation to our honor and the strength and equipper of the fight, of our quest to right the human wrongs and usher in God’s justice.
“The soldier is to be a minister of God who administers God’s justice. Therefore it is very important for our military men and women to walk with God. God established the government to provide us with good things and to protect us from evil people. The government (including military) can be a tremendous blessing to a nation or the greatest curse. The Most Important Thing for Military Men and Women is to Walk with God. Military men and women need to consider their calling from God to administer His justice. They are a blessing to all those who do good and a terror to the evildoers. That responsibility is rooted in a relationship with God in which they know Him and His ways.” David Preston CRU
If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings[a] in his own image. Genesis 9:6 NLT
To Right The Unrightable Wrong – To Fight The UnBeatable Foe ~ To Reach For The Unreachable Star~
Human nature our human condition is an unrightable wrong. Man can’t tame it, man can’t change it, and man can’t beat it. It constantly raises up its ugly head. We human beings, in our human condition, are easily swayed by evil and we hurt one another, we wound each other, as hurting people who are influenced and deceived by evil, hurt people. Jesus claimed victory over the sins of our human nature, it took His death to defeat it. Our soldiers over the past years have come into full conflict with the horrendous side of our human condition. Men and women, we call our enemies of freedom, those who want to enslave others in horrifically evil ways, our soldiers have experienced their atrocities, and it has touched their souls in ways that have changed them and affected their souls. They have become wounded warriors.
Our Quest – No Matter How Hopeless, No Matter How Far…
The experiences of a military family, stamped with the atrocity of human beings waring against good with evil, is why peace seems like such an impossible dream. Yet we keep reaching for it, sacrificing many for the quest of it, for the pursuit of good winning over evil and peace to remain. Strong, courageous, honorable men and women, dream this impossible dream, running where the brave dare not go to right the wrongs of the unjust doings of evil. We honor them, respect them and stand in awe of them. They never give up striving, trying, reaching for that unreachable star, this is their quest, to protect our liberty, defend our freedoms from the atrocities of evil men. We honor our Veterans for fighting the good fight of freedom and we are grateful for their service to our liberty. Our flag freely flies over the home of the free and the brave because of the courageous, honorable Veterans of war.
To Bear With Unbearable Sorrow….
Our men and women, march into hell for that heavenly cause and they come back as our wounded warriors. Some do not come back, some do, but as we in military families know, the world is better because of their sacrifice, but our military family remains forever altered. War changes a military family in ways that can’t even be estimated, the sacrifices are huge. Nothing about the military family life is easy, but many are called to it, may have courage and strength beyond measure as they serve this nation with excellence and honor, as they put their faith and hope in God.
Deuteronomy 20:1-4 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”
Scorned And Covered With Scars… Still Strove To Reach The Unreachable Star…
As a military mom, I watched my son drive away in his red sports car until it was out of sight. He was off to his first deployment, off to a war, fighting evil for the sake of freedom. When he returned after that first deployment, our family was there, on the tarmac at the base, waiting for the buses to come in. His body was intact, his soul was deeply disturbed. He was not the same. Our family dynamics was forever changed, it has never been the same. As Military families we know, and experience the reality of truth that war changes things and we know how our soldier comes back as a wounded warrior in body, soul and spirit, and sometimes they are forever altered. Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome becomes the new silent companion in our family life, a cohort who raises its’s ugly head at times when you least expect it and chaos erupts in our military family life. Everything is made different by war. War sucks for the military family, there is no other nice way to put it. Our hearts are broken by it and many times the military family is shattered in pieces because of it. But God, He is a Healer, and in time, He brings forth new things, to replace the old that will never be recaptured. So, we quickly learn to surrender to Him, we cry out to Him and we wait, and hope for healing to come to our military family which has been so scarred by war.
Reach For The Unreachable Star…
Some military families recover from war in time, but others do not. Yet we all continue to reach for the unreachable star, and continue to hope in God to restore, renew and revive our military family. The aftermath of War can be loud in a military family’s life; the emotions are rough and the way is unchartered. After your warrior comes home from war, after being gone 9 months at a time, adjustments have to happen and you will either find your way, navigate your relationships to a new family peace, or you will be bound with an impossible silence and strife that wreaks havoc with your military family life. A lot of military warriors end their lives because they can’t bear the sorrow of war alone. They suffer in silence, because they don’t know how to share it with their family, this is the ultimate sorrow of silence for the military family, it is a deafening silence. Jesus is the only Peace Who can heal the soul of a military family. Yes, you are so happy that your soldier lived, came home, but then the reality of truth sets in, that they truly did not come home in one piece, they left parts of their souls in that land so far away, where they sacrificed so much for our freedom. Many wear the purple heart medal on the outside, but they also wear the purple heart on the inside, as their wounded heart is so hard to bear, that they find it as a huge distraction, so they may be present in the family, but they truly are not present in a way that matters as they learn to navigate their pain with the current responsibility in their military family life.
March Into Hell For A Heavenly Cause…
Military families wait in anticipation on the tarmac for their sons and daughters to return. You are so excited when they come home, time after time, deployment after deployment, so thankful that they come back alive, but then you realize, this wounded warrior, wounded in body, yet alive, this warrior has not come back thriving, their soul is dead ended by the atrocities of war, sorrows to heavy for any human being to bear. This is the unbeatable foe, the unbearable sorrow of horrific memories that turn into nightly night mares and unnavigable relationships . The sorrow etched in their soul from carrying the body of their dead brother or sister, across the desert back to camp. The sorrow when their Lieutenant is killed as they fought shoulder to shoulder with you. The sorrows they experience through the horrific atrocity of a cowardly enemy who has no respect for human life, no respect for women or children, as they use them as human shields during the battles. The horrific atrocity of an enemy who detonates and IED bomb remotely and leaves so many of their brothers and sisters horribly dismembered. These are the unyielding torturous memories of the soul, that continue to wound the spirit of our soldier and our veterans. Yet, as a military family, we experience the wounds of our wounded warrior too, as they are home, but their spirit is broken from their trek into the hell of war. Nothing is the same. The relational loss is great. The scars remain in our military family. There is hope, especially when we put our hope in God, and hope for the healing so badly needed, hoping for Him to lead us to the restoration for what war has stolen from us.
Yet when holy lovers of God cry out to him with all their hearts, the Lord will hear them and come to rescue them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and he is always ready to restore the repentant one. Even when bad things happen to the good and godly ones, the Lord will save them and not let them be defeated by what they face. Psalm 34:17-18
Living With The Loss Of War Hurts Every Single Day…
Honestly, my military family, remains broken by war, with the hope of one day, progressively, we will heal, we hope for the silence of sorrow to be broken through with the joy of Jesus, with the hope of our real future in Him. But, until then, we remain a shattered family, in His Hands hoping with His helped to be reshaped and made new. This is the true reality of our Veterans Day, of our Memorial Day, of our remembrance of 9/11 and of our July 4th. Military Families sacrifice much, more and most for the freedom Americans enjoy, and most Americans don’t even have a clue just how much their freedom costs the military and veteran family.
Willing To March Into Hell…
In Afghanistan, they fought for three days to bring the election votes in from the outer villages, so their votes could be counted. They fought the Taliban, who did not want these people to have a voice, they gave their lives and many of them left a piece of their souls with these people, so starved for liberty and justice. Why? Why did so many of them reup for duty, for another 4 years of this horrific war, this human trying to right the unrightable wrong? Maybe this poem might help you see into the soul of one of these military warriors and understand more clearly.
In Mosel, Iraq, our soldier and his unit fought for over 16 days, without rest or food to take the city away from the clutches of evil and put up a flag of freedom. They lost many of their brothers in this fight. My son fought many battles, but the one that sticks in my heart the most, shows the heart, courage, excellence and honor of these military warriors. Wounded by a IED remotely detonated by a cowardly enemy. He did not leave the unit he commanded, he was wounded and damaged his body more as he stayed for weeks and continued to lead his men, until he could not physically continue with the injuries he had sustained and had to be flown off the battlefield. I drove 19 hours to pick him up, watched as he sat in a wheel chair, came off the plane with many others who could not sit up, who were on stretchers. A picture that is forever ingrained in my soul. After that, I drove him to meet his first-born son for the first time, his son was 3 months old. His recovery, physically took many years of surgery after surgery, and still to this day, he has been limited by his physical injuries, and the hardest part is he has been altered in his soul with the sorrows and atrocities of war that remain with him as he tries to heal from these horrific memories.
What makes it harder on military and veteran families is our this season of Congressional Corruption. It is so sickening, in times such as these, to watch those who have been given the precious authority to govern our United States, to service our freedom and liberty, abuse this authority, use it to promote politics over people. There is no greater sorrow for a military family to bear, knowing the sacrifices we have made to defend this precious freedom, are stomped on by power hungry politicians who are acting out a corruption coup, on the very freedom of our vote, trying to take away what we voted because they did not like the results. The liberty to vote has been sacrificed for with the blood, sweat and tears by our military and veterans’ families. These politicians stomp on the graves of those we have lost as they corrupt the power given them to serve the liberty of we the people. We need to remember the sacrifices of those who died for this freedom and change it up to liberty, justice for all.
Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
We stand courageously on the tarmacs, we wait until they load the buses, they kiss our cheek and say goodbye for now, and our hearts follow the buses out of sight, remembering the feeling of that last hug and chasing away the fears that we won’t see them again. Families return home with an emptiness and anxiety in their hearts and a knowing that they must carry on with honor, courage and strength as their soldier is in theatre, fighting for freedom. Our soldiers, our family members are continents away, fighting in places, so far from home! Every military family member sacrifices for the freedom that others enjoy. Military Families give up so much of their lives and personal freedoms to serve our liberty, there are so many missed, Christmas, Mother’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations where there are empty chairs in our family life celebrations. The sacrifices extend into all parts of living, as the military family is told where to live, and are moved almost every 3 or so years. Soldiers are told what to wear, even down to their hair cut. A soldier’s day is long with duty and training and very often their pay is short. They miss so much of their family life and the military spouse, the unsung hero, bears the full weight of the family during deployments. Sometimes families pay the ultimate sacrifice, when their servant warrior, does not come home. This is why we owe such a debt of gratitude, honor and blessing to our Veterans and Military Families who carry the scars of serving our liberty. Inner and outer scars. Great honor and respect is due to our Veterans, our Military and their families.
The military is a unique culture within any country. It has its own support systems, rhythms of life, and challenges. Today, many military families are separated because of deployments, causing unique relationship challenges that many civilians do not face. Men and women in the armed forces experience and have to learn to cope with the effects of war. Common challenges like leadership stress, peer pressure are felt with greater intensity. https://crumilitary.org/why-the-military/
To Love Pure And Chase From Afar
Many times, deployments and rebasing change things up for military family members and we learn to love from afar, especially when the military family is stationed overseas. This is hard on all family members, yet you endure and you love purely from afar, adjusting to face time contacts and love packages mailed monthly. The sacrifices of military families and veterans are truly unknown by the civilian population, who has no idea the daily sacrifices that have been made or are being made right now to protect and defend the liberty and freedom they take for granted. Freedom has a cost and the majority of it is paid by the military family, who hopes for better times, for times of peace, for times of less deployments for their military warrior.
To Try When Your Arms Are Too Weary – No Matter How Hopeless
In times such as these, where we have endured years of war with no rest or reprise, our military and their families are war weary, and our veterans grow in size and need. Yet they keep giving, fighting for the right of freedom without question or pause. It is this kind of excellence we celebrate, we honor and we cherish.
Ecclesiastes 3:8 “A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
For those of you who are family members of Veterans, families where war has marked your family life with irrevocable change, today we honor you, we recognize an unpayable debt is owed by us, we turn to God, we pray and ask Him to repay, restore, refresh, renew, revive our Veterans and their families, our Military Warriors and their families, in that way only He can. We ask Him to protect, provide and use this time of service to our nation purposefully so, and create in us a heart of healing, so we can be whole again, looking back with heavenly hindsight and learning to be thankful for the scars of war, which have made us a better military and veteran family.
Thank you for stopping in our Military Family Table at The Bridegroom’s Café. This meal has the taste of the reality of truth for military families. We hope you have learned to appreciate and honor them more and will do something tangible to help encourage a military family near you. Please share this meal with other families and let’s all honor our Veterans and their families.