I like the philosophy of cowboys.   For example, "Before you let anyone measure you for the big wooden overcoat, make sure you've wrung all the life outta' your livin'"   Do you follow that thought?

   One of the things that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder causes us, combat Vets, to feel is what's called a "foreshortened future."   Or, we believe we have no future because we "sense" our "number is up" and we're going to die at any moment.   We see only our soon to come death.  For some of us, it's because we're aging.  Often it's because, as I said before, our hope and our desire for our future has been stolen.

   Let me offer (and at this point it doesn't matter) whether your faith is in God or not, man is a being with a spirit and at some point, either during our tour of combat duty or after/since our return home, our spirit was broken. When our spirit was broken, so too our dreams were destroyed, our plans  and desires for a future disrupted.

   I don't mean that we didn't go on to work as plumbers, auto-workers, carpenters or marry and raise families; I worked as a nurse, medical missionary and pastor until my injuries got the better of my physical body and PTSD took it's toll.   I have three adult children.

   But I have gone back to school.   My wife Jamie and I just had a baby boy. We're running one ministry and preparing to set-up two more.   I am changing my earthly destiny abck to a Godly destiny.

   As I've prayed, I have realized that there is still a plan for me that has never expired.   Truly the plan has needed altering because of the time gone by and my age now, but it still exists. God has not abandonded His plan for me that only I can fulfill.

   But He will not force me to change.   He will not demand that I follow Him.   It is a free will choice.   A decision I make on my own.                            

   I am not attempting to "cram" anything down anyone's throat, nor preach to you.   But I am attempting to deliver the truth and in that encourage you...to lift you up.

   Allow me to leave with this final thought.   The Bible book of Romans, chapter 8, verse 28, (New International Version) says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Be richly blessed,

Frank