Many Americans are amidst plans for a long Veterans Day weekend. I hope to get some time to relax. I aim to fish and hunt some. I hope to spend time with loved ones. I hope to rest some. But I am determined to remember. The older I grow, the more important the study of history becomes.

A nation’s memory is vital. If we do not know our past, we cannot learn from it. I think, for example, how my great-grandparents, now long deceased, would likely respond if I told them that Americans nowadays are crazed and mad because they are being forced to deny reality and list their ‘preferred pronouns’. I can just see my old great-grandfather, a hog farmer from south GA, look at me as if I had just landed from outside the Milky Way. He would have told me to look at the hogpen and point to the boars and the sows, and then he might have said, “And that’s how you get shoats. Any questions?” Country wisdom is helpful like that.

Memory is vital. A wise culture will understand why it is where it is. How is that possible? By knowing and understanding history. Not by tearing down history–statue by statue, building by building, street by street, installation by installation. If we have no shared memory and understanding of the past, the culture disintegrates. Visigoths are not limited to 5th century Rome, in other words. There is never a worry that clueless mobs will not be available. Useful idiots are in great and terrifying supply.

Historical memory is essential to a culture’s health. I do not say that just because I have been in the military for over 20 years. It is not because I am a sentimentalist when I look at my nation’s flag. No, there are many atrocities for which I think my nation is under divine judgment. A nation that demands a ‘right’ to murder its children is barbaric rather than redeemed.

But we are a mixed bag, like other nations, a nation in dire need of repentance and revival. We are in perilous times because it is clear that clear-headed leadership is lacking. We are witnessing a time that demands a denial of reality. And we are reaping the whirlwind.

I hope to continue to serve faithfully and to bear witness to the truth as best as I am able. I am grateful for my own family’s history, veterans who served well. I hope to see that history continue. But it will require courage, clear-headed courage, and spiritual wisdom in order to endure. No amount of secular existentialism will see us through. No, one requires a foundation–a fixed and holy standard–one upon which to build a life and a nation and a culture. That foundation has a name. There is a logos. There is a Word that has come and revealed that wisdom does not hide, but rather calls out:

The Blessings of Wisdom

8 Does not wisdom call?
    Does not understanding raise her voice?
² On the heights beside the way,
    at the crossroads she takes her stand;
³ beside the gates in front of the town,
    at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
⁴ “To you, O men, I call,
    and my cry is to the children of man.
⁵ O simple ones, learn prudence;
    O fools, learn sense.
⁶ Hear, for I will speak noble things,
    and from my lips will come what is right,
⁷ for my mouth will utter truth;
    wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
⁸ All the words of my mouth are righteous;
    there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
⁹ They are all straight to him who understands,
    and right to those who find knowledge.
¹⁰ Take my instruction instead of silver,
    and knowledge rather than choice gold,
¹¹ for wisdom is better than jewels,
    and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.

¹² “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
    and I find knowledge and discretion.
¹³ The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
    and perverted speech I hate.
¹⁴ I have counsel and sound wisdom;
    I have insight; I have strength.
¹⁵ By me kings reign,
    and rulers decree what is just;
¹⁶ by me princes rule,
    and nobles, all who govern justly.
¹⁷ I love those who love me,
    and those who seek me diligently find me.
¹⁸ Riches and honor are with me,
    enduring wealth and righteousness.
¹⁹ My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
    and my yield than choice silver.
²⁰ I walk in the way of righteousness,
    in the paths of justice,
²¹ granting an inheritance to those who love me,
    and filling their treasuries.

²² “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work,
    the first of his acts of old.
²³ Ages ago I was set up,
    at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth,
    when there were no springs abounding with water.
²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped,
    before the hills, I was brought forth,
²⁶ before he had made the earth with its fields,
    or the first of the dust of the world.
²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there;
    when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
²⁸ when he made firm the skies above,
    when he established the fountains of the deep,
²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit,
    so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
³⁰     then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
    rejoicing before him always,
³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world
    and delighting in the children of man.

³² “And now, O sons, listen to me:
    blessed are those who keep my ways.
³³ Hear instruction and be wise,
    and do not neglect it.
³⁴ Blessed is the one who listens to me,
    watching daily at my gates,
    waiting beside my doors.
³⁵ For whoever finds me finds life
    and obtains favor from the Lord,
³⁶ but he who fails to find me injures himself;
    all who hate me love death.” (Proverbs 8:1-36, ESV)

Thank the vets around you. Listen to their stories. Learn from them. Pray for their families. And seek wisdom while she may be found.