There I was, in the airport, just minding my own business. I was completing a needed book, Coleman Luck’s Day of the Wolf. I only had a few pages left when a polite, soft-spoken, tall man approached me over my right shoulder. He held out a blue business card with his name and organization’s information on it. As I took the card with my left hand, he shook my hand, saying, “Thank you for your service.”

I could tell right away he was prior military. The way he carried himself, his self-confidence, his poise. I looked at his black shirt. One of the writings over his left breast pocket indicated he’d been with U.S. Army Special Forces. And his demeanor bore that out.

“I’m part of a Christian faith-based resilience program to help us heal. Thanks, again,” he said.

“I appreciate your service, too,” I said. “I think I understand more now.”

We shook hands again. He gently walked across the white tile corridor to board his flight to Miami.

I looked at the card he’d handed me and navigated to his organization’s website. Just like he said, there it was–the organization, his bio, the organization’s Christian worldview and outreach, and the backstory of how/why he and another retired soldier had begun the work together.

Their site: http://www.tacticalresiliencyusa.com

Their stated mission? To heal the hero.

I’m invariably relearning how others-focused Godly leaders are.

One of my favorite lines about Christian service is this: “Our lives are the grapes that He [Christ] crushes into drink for parched souls.”

Abel, I appreciate your years of service in uniform and your now (arguably more signficant) Christian service to America’s warriors whose souls need the balm of Gildead more than we realize or admit. Salute.