Today is Veterans’ Day 2013.  So much of what we enjoy has come to us because of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have given all their tomorrows in our nation’s wars.  The feeling we all have of gratitude for their sacrifice and pride in their accomplishment must these days be tinged with a greater-than-usual sense of regret on their behalf.  As our people abuse their freedoms in either wanton licentiousness or sell them cheaply by becoming dependent on the central government in increasing numbers, Veterans’ Day always accentuates my sense of legitimate national guilt.  Do we not owe them a better showing for what they purchased for us with their blood?

Many people have thanked me today for my service. I have always been a bit dumbstruck when this happens. I know that when someone says “Thank you”  you are supposed to say “you’re welcome.” That is just good manners.  And to be sure I thank veterans for their service all the time.  But as a veteran, I have to say that when I am thanked I immediately think of those we can’t thank in person because they died on the field.  I’m with Hal Moore, who in an interview years ago said that coming home alive from war makes commanders feel guilty because of the men who did not make it.  They are what Veterans’ Day is really about to me.  They actually did something that every vet is willing to do.

To those who would thank me for the paltry service I rendered as an officer in the U.S  Army, I say that it truly was my pleasure and privilege to contribute to our national defense.  I always want to say thank you back to Americans for giving me that privilege. In  my short five years of active duty service I received more in training and character development than I could hope to pay back in good decision-making and hard work in a forty-year career. Maybe two careers.  Being an Army officer during a vital portion of my life as a young man meant growing up and working in the real world on things that really mattered, and I really needed that if I was going to be a pastor. I truly benefited from learning how to lead with others’ lives on the line, knowing I was called lead in the affairs of spiritual life.

Those men who as my superior officers trained me have my humble gratitude and affection, though I could not always say it back then.  Those men who worked with me as peers were my trainers as well, for the Army is a profession that polices its own ranks.  Those men who worked as my subordinates perhaps trained me the most. That is the way of the junior officer in the military of a free nation.  These all by their commitment to the mission and the men made me successful, if I ever enjoyed any success, and they still motivate me to cultivate my new skills and constantly improve my work today.  I miss them all daily, and I miss the service that brought us together.  They are in my prayers of thanksgiving and intercession.

The men I trained and fought alongside who did not come home, or who came home maimed for life always remind me of what it takes to maintain the fragile gift of American freedom.  For life their families will bear the weight of loss that others can only imagine, though with tears.  I salute these men and their families who understand better than most what we mean when we thank our vets for their service.

I thank God for the United States of America, for Americans who understand what this great experiment in human freedom  is all about, and for our troops, past, present, and future.  What a blessing to be able to say publicly among men that in presence of the Lord Jesus Christ I honor our defenders to His Father.  For now I am free to speak in this Name without threat of censure.  For now.  We have God and our vets to thank for this precious liberty.