Today, I wanted to share a combat veteran’s perspective on Memorial Day. This day brings many tears for all of us who made it home alive. Some of you may know veterans or have them in your family. Just know they may carry a burden of guilt they do not show you. I, myself, felt guilt and shame when I came home, while my brothers and sisters did not. I asked God many times why it had to be them and not me. And God put this message on my heart.

On this Memorial Day, before anything else, I want to pause and turn my heart toward the Lord in gratitude and remembrance. I thank God for this country, for the freedoms we enjoy, and especially for the brave men and women who laid down their lives to protect it. Their sacrifice is not just a national blessing; it is a sacred reminder of the kind of love that reflects the heart of Christ.

Today I pause to remember, with a grateful and heavy heart, the men and women who laid down their lives defending the United States of America. As a former soldier who served in Iraq, I carry the faces and names of brothers and sisters in arms who did not make it home to their families and loved ones. Their sacrifice is not a line in history to me – it is personal, it is sacred, and it is forever.

God’s Word says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). That verse has new meaning when you’ve seen that kind of love lived out on dusty roads, in the dark of night, and in moments of unimaginable courage. Today I thank God for every hero who lived that verse with their last breath.

We often say, “All gave some, but some gave all.” Those who gave all left empty seats at dinner tables, unopened letters, and children who will grow up hearing stories instead of voices. May we never forget that our freedoms were bought with real blood, real tears, and real lives. Remembering them is not just a tradition; it is a duty of the heart.

I pray that the Lord wraps His arms around the families of the fallen, comforts their grief, and fills them with a peace that only Christ can give. May He also give us the courage to live lives worthy of the price they paid – lives of gratitude, faith, love, and service. Today, and every day, we remember: they are not forgotten, and their sacrifice still speaks.