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My daughter came home from school—elementary school—reading a book that she absolutely could not put down. Then she starts telling me the plot. “Kids kill one another.”

I held my chest. “What? Wait. You can’t read that.”

But she had read it. It was The Hunger Games and she pretty much devoured all the pages before I could lift a finger to protest. So, I did the only thing I know to do as a mother. I picked up the pages and entered the world with her, so I could speak the language of the Districts and the Capital.

From All Saints until Veterans Day, I’m posting a blog series on soldier saints at Centurions Guild. “Ten Saints, Ten Days” explores ten lives, their context, and their relevance to soldiers today. In the Bible, the number ten signifies completion and wholeness—something many soldiers today do not feel. The moral complexity of their service is too often brushed away with a quick “thank you” or an upgrade to first class. But soldiers’ experiences, their testimonies, are part and parcel to the integrity of the church—especially in this time of war.

A theologically credible account of war requires the voice of soldiers, the actual bodies that participate in it.