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“Never Give Up”
Never Give Up
Wade Webster
When Nazi Germany was knocking on the door of Great Britain in the Second World War, Winston Churchill gave several powerful speeches to rally the British people. In one of these speeches, he declared,
"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 on the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
In another speech he said that if the British Empire continued for another thousand years, men might very well look back on them and say, "This was their finest hour."
It would have been easy for Britain to have surrendered. Hitler seemed unstoppable. They were enduring daily bombings. Their city was being leveled building by building. However, they refused to quit.
In 2005, Seal Team 10, consisting of nineteen Navy Seals, showed similar resolve. The mission, known as Operation Redwing, went horribly wrong. Marcus Luttrell was the lone survivor of that mission.
No one could have blamed Luttrell for giving up. His buddies were dead, his back was broken, and he had been shot. He was deep within enemy territory. However, Luttrell refused to quit. Lying on the ground, he grabbed a rock, reached out as far as he could, and drew a line in the sand. He then proceeded to drag himself until his feet crossed that line. Again and again, he repeated this grueling process. It is estimated that Luttrell crawled for about seven miles before he was finally rescued.
No doubt, as Bible students, we are reminded of another soldier - the Apostle Paul. He was also in a great fight against a very powerful enemy. His words motivated many to stay in the fight. He endured so much. He faced daily problems. To the saints at Corinth, he detailed some of these things he suffered: stripes, prisons, stoning, perils, fastings, shipwreck, cold, and nakedness (2 Cor 11:22-29). There was no quit in Paul. He too had a mark to which he was pressing. To the saints at Philippi, he wrote, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14). It would have been easy for Paul to have given up, but he didn’t.
We often sing a song in connection with baptism entitled, "I Have Decided To Follow Jesus." The first line ends with the words, "No turning back. No turning back." The last line ends with the words, "No turning back, I'll follow him." We are reminding those who are being baptized to never give up. We are encouraging them to fight on no matter what. We are encouraging them to draw a line in the sand and to drag themselves across that line if necessary. A million years from now, we may look back from heaven at the times in our lives when we didn't give up and say that this was our finest hour.
