November 05th, 2018

November 5, 2018
 
              This coming Sunday is Veterans’ Day, even more significantly the 100th anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I.  If you are not already aware, bells will be ringing across America at 11:00a.m. on November 11 to honor the armistice and, of course, Veterans’ Day.
              As you know, the purpose of my book and most of my blog entries is to offer some insight or ideas related to healing from grief and depression. In this day and age, we are very aware of the trauma of PTSD, considered a veterans’ condition originally called “shell shock” and “battle fatigue.” Actually, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can occur after any trauma; I was first aware of it related to a friend’s son who had been in a horrible car accident. He survived, but he dealt with PTSD for some time.
              At any rate, PTSD includes a number of symptoms but definitely includes deep depression, sometimes suicidal. We should be praying not only on Veterans’ Day but constantly for our veterans and others afflicted with this life-altering condition. Interestingly enough, many of my 1966 classmates were involved in Viet Nam, and groups of them are now meeting and working together to help each other with PTSD symptoms which many of them had never identified before as being part of that condition.
              The key here is help, and I would like to return to my usual theme of the solution to darkness of any kind being centered in the Light of the World. Do clinicians, physicians, support groups and treatments help? Of course, but any kind of disorder of this kind needs not only physical and mental healing but spiritual healing as well. No one offers spiritual healing more completely than Jesus.
              How ironic that in the last number of years religion has been heavily opposed in relation to the military and many chaplains chastised or even punished for using the name of Jesus. At a time when our soldiers need it more than ever! Should Christianity be pushed on those who are unreceptive for one reason or another? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean its healing and comfort should not be offered.
              Let us pray for our veterans, offer them our help and the comfort of our beliefs, and hope that the horrors of PTSD will be lessened.