No Front Line

A Reflection for the Iraq and Afghanistan Generation

For the Ones Who Fought the Long War

You fought a different kind of war than the generations before you. There was no front line. No safe rear. The enemy didn't wear a uniform, and death could be waiting in a parked car, a crowded market, or a stretch of ordinary road. You may have gone back not once but three, four, five times — coming home just long enough to start to soften, then re-armoring to go again. And when it was finally over, some of you watched on a screen as the ground you bled for was handed back, and a question rose up that no one around you seemed to understand: was it worth it?

These reflections are for you — the Iraq and Afghanistan generation. The post-9/11 veterans who carried the longest wars in American history, and carried them home.

There's a reason this series is called No Front Line. It's the truest description of the war you fought — but it's also the truest description of the one still going on inside a lot of you. The enemy that followed you home doesn't wear a uniform either. There's no safe rear in the soul, no stretch of road you're allowed to relax on. And that's exactly the ground God is willing to walk with you, step by step, until the war behind your eyes finally quiets.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful." — 2 Timothy 4:7 (NLT)

What This Is

This is a collection of honest reflections written for the specific wounds your war left behind — not the wounds every soldier shares, but the ones that belong to your generation in particular. The question of whether it meant anything. The war that followed you home through a screen. The unseen enemy that trained your body never to relax. The deployments that never seemed to end. The brothers and sisters you lost — some over there, and some right here at home, long after the shooting stopped.

Each reflection takes one of these and holds it up to the Word of God — not with easy answers, but with the only Answer strong enough to carry the weight. We'll sit with people in Scripture who knew these exact battles: Joseph, who watched years of his life seem wasted before he saw what God was doing; Habakkuk, who cried "how long, O Lord?" while everything fell apart; David, who grieved a fallen brother and refused to let the world tell him to hurry past it.

"He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds." — Psalm 147:3 (NLT)

Who Writes This?

These reflections are written by a fellow traveler, not a tourist. I am a veteran of the wounds war leaves behind — and I'll be honest with you: God is still healing me, even now. I'm not writing from the far side of it all, looking back from a safe distance. I'm writing from the road, turning around to tell you what I've found on it. And I've walked with enough of your generation to know that your war asked something particular of you — and left something particular in you. That deserves to be spoken to directly, not folded into everyone else's story.

What This Is — and What It Isn't

This is not a treatment program, and it is not a replacement for doctors, counselors, or the VA — God works through those means too, and using them is not weak faith; it's wisdom. What you'll find here is something the secular world cannot offer: the Gospel of Jesus Christ brought directly to bear on the questions your war raised and never answered. No slogans. No "thank you for your service" and a quick change of subject. Just honest words, real Scripture, and a God who was never once frightened by anything you saw or did or carried home.

The Reflections in This Series

New reflections are added as they're written. Start wherever your heart is heaviest — but if you don't know where to begin, begin with the first. (Click on the title to read the blog)

• Part 1: What Was It All For? — the question of whether it meant anything — and the God who wastes nothing

• Part 2: The War That Followed You Home — watching the ground you bled for fall, and the God who holds His purposes even when we can't see them

• Part 3: The Enemy You Couldn't See — hypervigilance with no front line, and the armor God actually provides 

• Part 4: The Long War — the deployments that wouldn't end, and the God of daily bread in a season that won't break (coming soon)

• Part 5: Brotherhood and the Empty Seat — the brothers and sisters lost — downrange and at home — and the God who grieves with us (coming soon)

Walk With Us

Read at your own pace. Come back when the questions get loud. And if one of these reflections sounds like your war, forward it to someone from your unit who needs it — sometimes the bravest thing a veteran does is say to another, "this one sounded like us."

And if you are in crisis right now, please don't wait on a reflection. Call the Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1 — or reach out to someone you trust. You are not alone, and you are not beyond the reach of God.

"For God has said, 'I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.'" — Hebrews 13:5 (NLT)

You fought the long war. You came home. Now let the Lord bring the rest of you home, too. That's what these pages are for.

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 Peter 810.922.1473  •  Bill 586.404.3316