On the night of June 21, 2025, President Donald Trump said all seven B2 Bombers had safely returned from an unprecedented successful attack on Iran’s fortresses of nuclear weapon development.
“I want to just thank everybody, and in particular, God. I want to just say, we love you God. We love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel, and God bless America.”
President Trump, speaking earnestly on national TV, inspired me as a retired member of the military, and as a Christian, to stand and salute him with heartfelt respect.
How refreshing to hear the most powerful man in the world today invoke the name of God in giving thanks and in prayer for the protection of our military. The public does not know how courageously our military sacrifice life and limb for our freedom.
We say, “Freedom is not free,” but our men and women in uniform know it, live it bravely and, if necessary, die for it because it is true.
My wife and I shared pizza yesterday with Brent, a former Battalion Commander, a combat Soldier I’ve been privileged to know for the past 17 years. He was born and raised in the West where fly fishing has been one of the few things, besides his wife and children, he is still able to enjoy.
Brent and his wife flew to Virginia from Montana to see their daughter graduate from the U. S. Army Basic Officer Course at a nearby military installation.
Brent is a strapping, strong, smiling, pleasant person. Hidden deeply are his ever-present combat traumas, too terrible to tell anyone with whom he does not have a “bond of trust.”
You would not know he has never slept well since combat “because I can’t turn off my mind,” that he continually endures unspeakable pain, that he cries inwardly for his Soldiers who were killed in front of him, magnifying his guilt and sense of helplessness.
You would not know he had brain tumor surgery. You would not know he is one hundred percent (military term) disabled.
You would not know that he regularly volunteers in a Food Bank, delivering groceries to needy neighbors.
You would not know he teaches fly fishing to disabled veterans.
You would not know he “works a few hours a week in a fly fishing shop where, he says, “it’s the only place where I can really focus my attention…making flies for fishing.”
I don’t know anything about fly fishing, but yesterday Brent taught me that “mending the line” is a key term. “You don’t want the line to get ahead of the fly,” he said, “so after you cast the line into the river, you bring it back in so the fly is the right place for the trout. Bringing the line back in is called “mending the line.”
Brent is on the board of an organization named, “Mending Waters.” They help combat traumatized Soldiers. Some of the veterans are confined to wheelchairs. “We have 4 or 5 men who will lift the severely disabled vets into the boat, so they can also enjoy the journey. They tell us nothing makes them happier.”
I join President Trump in thanking God for our wonderful men and women who serve in the United States military service. We all join him, I pray, in asking God to protect them and to bless the Middle East, Israel, and America.
President Trump does not expect us to assume his is life perfectly obedient to the will of God.
Historically, Jesus, “part man and part God,” was the only life without sin or any form of imperfection. It was Jesus’s love and perfection that qualified Him as the “unblemished lamb” whose sacrificial death was sufficient payment for all the sins of those who confess that Jesus is the long-expected Son of God, the Messiah.
Among the Judeo-Christian Bible’s laudable traits is its historical record. Archeological findings to date, and they are numerous, confirm the biblical record.
The Bible is replete with examples of imperfect people who were used by God to accomplish remarkable tasks.
The following biblical short list of common people like you and me demonstrates that God’s power is often made perfect in our weakness.
Sarah, Abraham’s wife, doubted God’s promise of a child due to her age. Nevertheless, God fulfilled His promise, and she became the mother of the nation of Israel.
Despite his doubts about speaking effectively, Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery and toward the Promised Land with God’s guidance.
Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho, showed faith by protecting Israelite spies. Her actions saved her family and placed her in Jesus’ lineage.
Despite committing adultery and murder, David‘s sincere repentance led to forgiveness, allowing him to become a significant king in Israel and an ancestor of Jesus.
Jonah initially avoided the call to preach in Nineveh. Despite his hesitations and imperfections, it resulted in the city’s repentance.
Peter, initially impulsive and fearful, denied Jesus three times despite his promise. However, Jesus restored him, commissioning Peter to lead the early church, where he became a bold preacher.
The Samaritan Woman, despite her troubled past, met Jesus who revealed Himself to her. She then became a witness and led many in her town to believe in Him.
Zacchaeus, a dishonest tax collector, repented and was transformed after meeting Jesus.
Mary Magdalene was freed from demonic possession. She became a follower of Jesus. She was the first to witness His resurrection and was instructed to inform the disciples.
Thomas, called “Doubting Thomas,” initially demanded physical proof of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus addressed his doubt, which strengthened Thomas’s faith, leading him to become a devoted disciple.
Paul, once a persecutor of Christians, was converted on the road to Damascus. He became a key apostle, spreading the Gospel. He wrote a lot of the New Testament.
These stories, a few of many, show that God qualifies those He calls, using ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Your past doesn’t disqualify you; it sets the stage for God’s redemption. All He asks is a willing heart.
On July 13, 2024, countless people worldwide witnessed the nearly successful assignment of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The degree of the shooter’s near success was remarkable.
Had President Trump not turned his head, the assign’s bullet would have entered his skull, not the lobe of his right ear.
President Trump was shot by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired eight rounds from an AR–15–style rifle from the roof of a nearby building. Crooks also killed a member of the rally, Corey Comperatore, and critically injured two others.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), one of my favorite authors, wrote The Tale of Two Cities (1859). The story was about the “turbulent times” of the French Revolution. Its opening line, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times,” is not unlike our own episodes of terrible turbulent times today.
How would Dickens describe twenty-first-century anti-Americanism in which we dog-paddle breathlessly toward the safest appearing shore?
Dickens would observe, “It is the Age of Atheism, Fear, and Rage.”
It is a canine conflict over “power,” just as it always has been, accompanied by loud barking, gnashing, biting, thrashing, as if gunpowder was sprinkled on our meat.
The turbulence is shown in color in real time and repeatedly. Worse, it is spliced been absurd televised commercials aimed at the subconscious mind, too inane for intelligent awareness.
Has virtue vacated our premises? Peace of mind seems far out of reach.
Today’s solution was encouraged long ago by Jesus, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33, ESV.
William James (1842-1910) reframed the above passage: “We all need to learn to give our little, private, convulsive selves a rest and find the Greater Self. When we find the Greater Self, our life and our work will take on a sense of lyrical enchantment.” By now, readers will surmise this is one of my favorite quotes.
By “lyrical enchantment” James is saying we will be humming along our way.
Amidst the forthcoming challenges and adversities, Jesus’ disciples and those who follow Jesus today can attain peace through fellowship with Christ.
I don’t know Dr. Ed Young, Pastor, Second Baptist Church, Houston, but I like him. I find his sermons spiritually and intellectually sound.
“Your soul is everything about you except your body. Your mind, not your brain, your thoughts, your personality, your character, your opinions, your willpower, and more, are all parts of your soul,” said Dr. Young.
Your consciousness, awareness, your self-perception, and your perception of others reside in your soul. The soul is where peace surpassing all human understanding is experienced. Jesus is the only being in all history who promises the peace that comforts us.
There are no portraits of the human soul. It is too precious to be painted or photographed. It has to be lived. I saw it lived just days ago in Brent. I saw it lived in the hundreds of human Soldiers I was called to know at Fort Lee.
Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.