This past summer my daughter and her husband, Jennifer and Jesse, took me and my wife on a vacation to Kansas City. We had an incredible time of fun and relaxation. Jesse treated us to Gordon Ramsay restaurant, WOW! I’ve never had an experience like it. Later we went to the National World War I museum. If ever in KC, it is well worth your time. We all left with our brains filled with new and fascinating information about a truly awful time in the world. I also got to go to Steel’s Used Books, the best little used bookstore you will find. I found three new Bibles to add to the collection. Eating, shopping, and playing games—just a perfect trip!
One of the most impactful moments came from a most unexpected place. Near the Airbnb we stayed at was a little park with fountains. Jennifer LOVES fountains—well any water but especially fountains. So, we walked on down. To our surprise it was the Kansas City Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Fountain. The KC Parks Department gives an excellent description:
The fountain consists of five rectangular, inter-connected pools of different sizes. The series of pools, from smaller to larger, represent growing American involvement in the war. The water flows into two separate pools, symbolizing the division of American opinion of the country’s involvement in the war. The water is symbolic of time with the power to cleanse and heal the divisions the Vietnam War caused in the country. (https://kcparks.org/places/vietnam-veterans_-memorial-fountain-2/ )
There is also a wall of the names of those who gave their lives in this conflict from the KC area. The pools and fountains were peaceful and caused me to reflect on the war. The pools reminded me of rice paddies. I would look across the pools at the wall of names and felt such loss and thought of their families, but I also felt immense pride that they and many others have been willing to put it all on the line for us. They gave there all so we could live free to go to great restaurants, museums, and stores; buy Bibles! I don’t take for granted we can still do these things because of the sacrifices of so many through the years.
It then hit me: the water from the bottom two pools come together at a center point to be pumped back to the top to recycle the water and make the return trip down. Several thoughts flooded my mind. It doesn’t seem we as a nation have come together. If anything, we now have more pools as we are so much more divided.
Also, I wondered if, as with the water, we are condemned to just continually make the repeated journey though the waters of war. Will we ever learn? Yet, I thanked God we no longer treat our soldiers the way we did the returning Vietnam Vets—may they and God forgive us.
However, I wonder how have we dealt with our longest war: the Afghanistan War, even as the war has ended with horrific results? I’m not wanting to comment on the war itself or how it ended, the right and wrong of it, who’s to blame or what should we have done. I want us to center on how we are dealing with our men and women who are sacrificing and have sacrificed so much for us. We seem as a nation—to my shame as an individual—to have forgotten them. Twenty years of conflict and I don’t think of them. I don’t regularly take the time to pray for them, their families, and our leaders they depend on.
I am determined to change this. I will pray each week for those serving in around the world and here at home. There are those who due to the nature of their mission we will never know about, but God does. I will pray for them too. I will set aside time to lift them up along with those who have served us in the past.
I will especially pray for those who are dealing with effects of their service whether physical, emotional, or psychological. I will also pray for their families who have suffered greatly. Families who had to endure their absence. Kids who had to navigate life without that parent. Marriages that did not last after their return home or are surviving but on unstable ground. Families who have them home only to see them deployed again, and the greatest sacrifice, to have them not return home at all.
I would humbly ask you—if you are not having a regular time of remembrance of them—join me in lifting up in prayer the men and women who are currently serving in all kinds of capacities and those who have served in the past. Pray for those who have long left the battlefield but still struggle with the effect we can barely imagine. Also pray for the families as they deal with the loss of time with those serving now, for the families struggling with their family member trying to return to “normal” life and for those who will never see loved one again on earth. Set a time on whatever schedule you are moved to do—daily, weekly, or monthly—to have a time to remember those who have given so much for us and those still giving to keep us free. God knows who they are, where they are, and what they and their families are enduring.
Here are some suggested verses you could pray for them if you are needing some help getting started.
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. Joshua 1:9 (ESV)
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2 (ESV)
But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! Psalm 31:14–16 (ESV)
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? Psalm 56:3–4 (ESV)
There are so many things which call for my attention but I—we—need to take the time to remember.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg