Perseverance: Doing what is right and good even when I want to give up.
“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5
One of the most difficult circumstances in which we are often called to persevere is when we are standing alone. I am grateful that, in Christ, we will never be truly alone. However, sometimes it can look as if all of the people around us have abandoned us in our hour of need. Even then, we are still called to persevere in doing right and good.
In 1940, during the second year of World War II, it looked as if Great Britain would be the final vestige of freedom in Europe. All of mainland Europe had come under the sway of Nazi Germany willingly or otherwise. The plucky little island off the coast of France that is only about the size of Michigan, was the next target on Hitler’s hit list. It was in this year that Britain experienced the devastating losses that culminated in the evacuation at Dunkirk. London and the surrounding environs were also subjected to massive aerial bombing campaigns that caused untold damage to the city. Yet, the British people, spurred on by their indomitable leader, Winston Churchill, refused to give in.
In 1941, only weeks before the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor, Churchill gave a speech at Harrow school that would go down in history. In it he said,
You cannot tell from appearances how things will go… surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
If ever there was found encouragement to persevere surely this is it. In Churchill’s estimation there are only two things that should ever drive us to “give in:” honor and good sense. What he knew, that some of his associates did not recognize early on, was that Hitler was a pathological bully. Giving in to him, or compromising with him, only fueled his insane desire for more, more, more. Instead, Churchill elected to stand firm and fight just as he said in another famous speech delivered in 1940;
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…
May we share a similar attitude of perseverance in our daily lives, and refuse to give in when the enemy has us on our heels, or in his sights. We are called to stand firm, and we are victorious in Christ Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Comments