What Is Walking Home?

Some of us came home from our service a long time ago — and some part of us never finished the trip. The body made it back. But the mind still patrols. The heart still carries what it saw, what it did, what it lost. The world calls these wounds PTSD, moral injury, addiction, survivor’s guilt. We call them what they are: wounds of the soul. And wounds of the soul need more than coping skills. They need a Healer.

Walking Home is a blog series written for veterans — men and women — who are still making that journey. Each post takes one struggle veterans live with every single day and holds it up to the light of Scripture. Not verses sprinkled on top like seasoning, but the Word of God taken down into the dark places where the wound actually lives. Every post walks with a biblical warrior or sufferer who lived the same battle — David the hunted soldier, Asaph the sleepless, Elijah the burned-out, Joseph the betrayed — and every post lands in the same place: at the feet of Jesus Christ, “a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief” (Isaiah 53:3, NLT).

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

Who Writes This?

These posts are written by a fellow traveler, not a tourist. I am a Vietnam veteran of these same battles — the rejection, the PTSD, the long nights — and I will tell you honestly: God is still healing me, even now. I have also spent over thirty years walking with hurting people through the Word of God. So what you will find here is not theory from a textbook or comfort from a safe distance. It is one wounded traveler turning around on the road and telling you what I have found: the road home is real, and you don’t have to walk it alone.

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. This is something the secular world cannot offer: the Gospel of Jesus Christ applied directly to the wounds war leaves behind. No clichés. No “get over it.” No pretending the pain isn’t real. Just honest words, real Scripture, and a God who has never once been scared off by what you carry.

The Series

New posts are added regularly. Start anywhere — but if you don’t know where to begin, begin at Part 1. It deals with the wound underneath all the other wounds. Just click on the Title you want to read.

•         Part 1: Rejected, But Not Forsaken — the rejection that cuts deeper than the battlefield, and the God who will never abandon you  (available now)

•         Part 2: The Watchman Who Can’t Stand Down — hypervigilance and the One who says “I have the watch”  (available now)

•         Part 3: Nightmares and the God of 3 A.M. — when sleep becomes the battlefield, and the God who is already awake  (available now)

•         Part 4: The Anger Underneath — the rage that guards the grief, and the God who can be trusted with both  (coming soon)

•         Part 5: Moral Injury: The Wound No One Names — guilt over what was done or witnessed, and the mercy that goes deeper  (coming soon)

•         Part 6: Numbing the Pain — addiction as self-medication, and the living water that actually satisfies  (coming soon)

•         Part 7: The Empty Chair — isolation, the lie that you’re safer alone, and the God who meets us in the wilderness  (coming soon)

•         Part 8: Survivor’s Guilt — the question “why did I come home?” and the God who turns it into purpose  (coming soon)

•         Part 9: When God Feels Absent — the silence of heaven, and the Savior who cried out from the cross  (coming soon)

•         Part 10: Commissioned, Not Discharged — your identity in Christ, and how the wound becomes the ministry  (coming soon)

Walk With Us

Read at your own pace. Come back when the night is long. Share a post with a battle buddy who needs it — sometimes the bravest thing a veteran ever does is forward an article and say “this sounded like us.”

And if you are in crisis right now, don’t wait on a blog post. 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 came home. Now let the Lord bring the rest of you home, too. That’s what these pages are for.

— Brother Bill