“We’ll teach you how to kill. When you get back, you’re the VA’s problem.” That’s what they told my old team sergeant before he deployed to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division. The risk of killing or being killed is an inescapable part of military service.
In the Army, recruits go through a formation process in Basic Combat Training that turns them into soldiers. Part of this means learning that the mission always comes first, which in turn must mean they’re expendable. First aid is taught with the assumption that at some point, someone will need a tourniquet, chest seal, or body bag. After all, the enemy also learns to shoot, and sometimes the mission requires soldiers to get into harm’s way.
That’s part of the tragic necessity of war. No one would have followed Washington across the Delaware or left the landing craft on D-Day if staying alive were the number-one goal. A commander’s ability to orchestrate force in combat would break down with a military unwilling to die.
But this same dynamic that makes militaries potent threatens the lives of those who fight, through the tragedy of veteran suicide.
Necessity of Sacrifice
We must understand sacrifice as more than mere operational necessity: Something is lost when nothing is worth dying for. C. S. Lewis famously warned of the danger of making men without chests—of a people without an anchoring morality to mediate the carnal passions of the stomach and the cold calculations of the head.
A society full of people consumed with their own survival doesn’t bode well for its moral character, to say nothing of its national defense. Americans ought to be thankful that thousands of young men and women regularly sign the dotted line to join the armed forces, volunteering to put their country’s well-being ahead of their own.
A society full of people consumed with their own survival doesn’t bode well for its moral character.
The willingness to sacrifice that makes a military effective can carry a hidden cost. What happens when a soldier learns to put his life second, then struggles to understand its value when the mission ends? A soldier who was prepared to take a bullet downrange may think little of a bottle of whiskey, a pack of cigarettes, or opening up his motorcycle on the highway.
When the Mission Ends
Those who make it back from combat alive aren’t entirely safe. Veterans take their own lives at roughly twice the rate of the general population.
Veteran suicide stems from a number of factors, including post-traumatic stress, moral injury, difficulty transitioning to civilian life, loss of purpose and social connection, traumatic brain injury, pain, and proximity to firearms. Alongside these factors, we should consider what it means to spend years learning to put one’s life second and what happens when that lesson outlasts the mission.
There’s an obvious tension when it comes to the value of life. Christians know that our lives in this world aren’t ultimate (Rev. 12:11). Christians can face death because we recognize this life’s limits, while still treating life as a gift worthy of protection. As Jesus taught, being willing to die for others is the highest form of love (John 15:13). This is why the second person of the Trinity stepped down from heaven, took on the form of a servant, and obediently followed the Father’s mission orders to death on the cross (Phil. 2:6–8).
Yet Jesus didn’t throw his life away; he demonstrated perfect courage. Between the foolhardiness that leads to blood on the highway and the cowardice that keeps men in hiding when a wolf growls at the door, stands courage.
As G. K. Chesterton observes, “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.” We see this in Christ’s agony in anticipation of the cross in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). Yet he carried his cross anyway.
Value of Life and Virtue of Sacrifice
The Christian worldview ties together the value of both life and sacrifice, offering hope for the coward and the reckless alike. That’s the power of the gospel.
Humans are made in the image of God, filled with inherent value (Gen. 1:27). Our bodies are temples that were bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:19–20). Though we sinners fail to bear God’s image faithfully, Jesus loved us enough to die on the cross for our sins (Rom. 5:8). He dignifies us by giving us the mission of serving as ambassadors of heaven in this life (2 Cor. 5:20). That mission sometimes requires sacrifice.
Christians can face death because we recognize this life’s limits, while still treating life as a gift worthy of protection.
On Veterans Day, we celebrate the willingness of those who have served and are serving to sacrifice for our country. In some ways, their willingness to sacrifice mirrors Christ’s sacrificial love. We can also remind veterans that their lives matter. The gospel gives us hope that our existence continues to matter when our work on earth is done. The mission may have ended, but their value has not.
With the hope of the new creation ahead, Christians are free to love our lives and our bodies while still being willing to sacrifice both for others. We know that the ultimate reward isn’t self-preservation in this life but union with God in the new heavens and new earth. That’s good news for all of us, and it may be just the news a veteran needs to hear today.
The Gospel Coalition