God Understands…Veterans Quick Start Guide
How can you engage with the God Understands series? In a snapshot, this Quick Start Guide will introduce the series, various ways to explore the resource, how to connect with others, and how you can make a difference by giving feedback. Check it out!
God Understands…When You Fear Death
Are you afraid of dying? Fear of death comes in many forms. Are you afraid of being a burden, dying alone, or dying in pain? Do you fear what comes after death? The Scriptures speak to each of these concerns. Find out more.
God Understands…When You Fear Death: Chapter 1
Medicine cannot perform blood tests to tell us where our death will lead us. There is no x-ray or CAT scan that will penetrate the unknown to reveal what our future holds. What comes after death is a mystery. Yet, people of faith have expressed a vision that provides comfort, hope, and security as we consider dying, death, and the unknown. That faith shines through the Scriptures that record our ancestors’ struggle with the fear of death. By faith, we can make their story our own.
God Understands…When You Fear Death: Chapter 2
Dying is never easy, especially when we feel that we are a burden to those who care for us. Often we maintain our sense of control by being caretakers. When we become the one who is to be taken care of, our roles are reversed and we lose a sense of who we are. Perhaps the next step in our spiritual journey is to let others take care of us. Perhaps it is now our turn to learn to be dependent upon others as we recognize our dependence upon God. As the following Scriptures point out, learning to let go of our need for control and relying on God and others is another spiritual task that our ancestors in the faith had to learn as well.
God Understands…When You Fear Death: Chapter 3
As death approaches we can feel like a child in the dark. Shadows are scary, becoming imaginary monsters. Sounds seem to signal an intruder in our midst. Familiar bedroom objects are transformed into dangerous phantoms.
If we have experienced trauma, combat, or abuse, approaching death may jerk us back into that former reality with such force that it is difficult to know what is real and what is not. Our very faith may be shaken; thus the core of who we are may waver and threaten to dissolve. How important then to return to the foundation of our strength, to turn to the Scriptures which have helped our ancestors in the faith claim the living God as their Shield, their Rock, and their Fortress.
God Understands…When You Fear Death: Chapter 4
We all have a natural fear of pain, and a profound fear of prolonged pain. Pain without meaning is weakening. Pain with meaning, such as giving birth to a child, can be borne with a sense of purpose. Though we fear pain, pain is one experience that unites us as human beings. The deepest pain is spiritual. A man, let’s call him Jake, recently discovered his girlfriend was seeing another man. Jake also suffered from multiple illnesses. In the chaplain’s office, bent over with his head on the chaplain’s desk, Jake said, “I would choose my physical pain any time compared to this pain of betrayal.” Our ancestors in the faith faced both physical and spiritual pain.
God Understands…When You Fear Death: Chapter 5
Research has shown that among the common fears of death are the fear of dying in pain, the fear of being a burden to others, and the fear of dying alone. At some point many people approaching death also wonder about what lies beyond death for them. Is God only an idea we use to falsely reassure ourselves, or is God the one true hope during and beyond our dying? Our ancestors also struggled with these questions. Here are Scripture passages that express their faith and their hope.
God Understands…When You Feel Angry
Do you feel angry more often than not? Is your anger sometimes out of control? Do your friends and family express concern for you and your well-being? Do your feelings frighten you? Are others frightened by the way you express your feelings? Learn what righteous anger looks like and allow God to set you free from anger that controls you.
God Understands…When You Feel Angry: Chapter 1
Understanding where anger is coming from in our lives is helpful. There is usually a deep-rooted hurt that is beneath anger. In the case of the Veteran in my office, he shared traumatic events from his childhood and from his time in Iraq. When we experience a traumatic event, anger is a common feature of a survivor’s response to trauma because it is a core component of the survival response in humans. Anger helps people cope with life’s adversities by providing us with increased energy to persist in the face of obstacles.
God Understands…When You Feel Angry: Chapter 2
Recognizing that anger is a natural, normal, and honorable response to injustice, mean-spiritedness, and wrongdoing is important. The Veteran’s wife, Kristina, mentioned in the introduction to this booklet had grown up in a home where anger was not openly expressed. Maybe you can relate to some of the following words of frustration expressed by this young wife in relation to her husband’s hurtful behavior.
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