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Last year, while I was working as a congressional fellow in the U.S. Senate, advising on veterans and military mental health matters, I spoke with a senior Army officer who had recently returned from a month-long visit to Iraq. His convoy had been attacked and some enemy combatants had been killed. It was his first brush with combat, and he said it was changing him, though he could not articulate how.

As Christians greet and welcome home the men and women who have served in Iraq, we should not be naive about what they have seen and done. Many are committed Christians who will spend the remainder of their lives trying to make sense of the events they have endured. It is work they must labor on with God. Jingoistic, rehearsed responses will only put would-be comforters in the same league as Job's friends. Listen to their stories, and let your life be challenged and changed as God's way is revealed in their lives.

Patrick Stone is a psychology professor at George Fox University. He has worked extensively with Vietnam veterans.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

A video of the shooting of a wounded Iraqi insurgent is available from MSNBC.

More coverage of the war is available from our full coverage area.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs runs the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The Iraq War Veterans Organization has links to resources and articles on PTSD.

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May 2006, Vol. 50, No. 5