{"id":42555,"date":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/wounded-soldiers-find-community-and-healing\/"},"modified":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","slug":"wounded-soldiers-find-community-and-healing","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/wounded-soldiers-find-community-and-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Wounded Soldiers Find Community and Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new program at Walter Reed Medical Center is trying to help wounded warriors recover from the incredible losses they&#39;ve experienced in war. Battlefield medicine has gotten better and better, but that also means that the people they&#39;re saving are increasingly injured. So some of these injured soldiers are finding healing through a community based on music. For instance, a band of wounded soldiers performed at Madison Square Garden in a concert called &quot;Stand Up for Heroes.&quot; The vocalist for the band was Marine Cpl. Tim Donley who lost both of his legs and the use of his right arm in a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Even though he can&#39;t walk, salute, or shake someone&#39;s hand, he&#39;s grateful to be part of a group where his singing voice is valued. His signature song has become Leonard Cohen&#39;s &quot;Hallelujah.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>The lyrics of the song are hauntingly honest: &quot;It&#39;s not a cry you can hear at night. It&#39;s not somebody who has seen the light. It&#39;s a cold and it&#39;s a broken Hallelujah.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Donley told a reporter,<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I thought I understood [that song], but the next thing you know, my whole life is coming down around my ears. Every dream, every hope I&#39;ve ever had for the future is broken around me, and I don&#39;t know where to turn, and it was at that place that God said, &quot;Do you still trust me? Do you still believe that I have what&#39;s best for you?&quot; And it was at that moment that I understood &quot;Hallelujah.&quot; I may be more whole now than I&#39;ve ever been in my life.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>In that place of belonging Donley and his friends are discovering wholeness in spite of their brokenness.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3482,3511,3524,3644,4021,4127,5003,5027,5195,5196,5198,5265],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42555","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-belonging","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-brokenness","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-friendship","tax_ctp_tags-healing","tax_ctp_tags-small-groups","tax_ctp_tags-sovereignty-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-trust","tax_ctp_tags-trusting-god","tax_ctp_tags-trustworthiness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-weakness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wounded Soldiers Find Community and Healing - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/wounded-soldiers-find-community-and-healing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wounded Soldiers Find Community and Healing - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new program at Walter Reed Medical Center is trying to help wounded warriors recover from the incredible losses they&#039;ve experienced in war. 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