Finest Hour…
It was May 1940. All was quiet on the battle line between Germany and France. Standing toe to toe were the army divisions of Hitler’s Third Reich against the combined armies of Britain and France. The French felt secure behind the Maginot Line, a line of defensive fortifications built after World War I. They correctly anticipated another war with Germany would come. They erred in thinking it would be a repeat of the battles of World War I – long sieges of trench warfare.
On May 10th, Hitler broke the stalemate and invaded The Netherlands and Belgium, neutral countries. The French had not extended the Maginot Line up across those borders. The German Army flanked the French and the British and drove toward Paris. Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister stepped down and a new prime minister, Winston Churchill took his place.
The British Expeditionary Force, some 338,000 men, were trapped against the sea near a town called Dunkirk. While the French Army fought a rear-guard action, the British Army evacuated across the English Channel, carried by a makeshift fleet of naval vessels, commercial ships, and private boats. But their tanks, artillery, guns, and thousands of other items that equip an army to fight lay in fields around Dunkirk.
Paris fell on June 14th. By June 18th, the French began to negotiate terms of surrender with the Germans. Britain now stood alone against the Nazis.
It appeared the situation was hopeless. The British had an army, but no weapons. Their air force was numerically inferior to the Luftwaffe. Their greatest asset, their fleet, was ill-equipped to fight in the narrow waters of the Channel. It seemed a matter of time before Hitler crossed the channel and invaded England. Hitler believed, having driven the British Army from the European continent, it would never return.
On the same day France began to negotiate surrender, June 18th, Winston Churchill made a speech, first to Parliament, then on the BBC to the British people. He did not paint a rosy picture. He confessed the hour was dark, the times were challenging. He acknowledged that he did not exactly know how victory would be achieved. In spite of the uncertainty, he called the British people to stand courageously against the evil represented by Nazi Germany.
He concluded one of the greatest speeches of our time with these stirring words: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was our Finest Hour.”
This year, 2020, has been filled with crisis. First, COVID19. Then the troubles of the economy. Politics this year seems to bring out the worst in people, not their best. People are stressed, emotions are running high.
I’m not sure why, but it seems many people I know have suffered a tragedy this year: a friend’s house burns; siblings with cancer; a niece dies tragically; a brain tumor is found. These things always happen, but it seems this year they are heavier, occupying more space in our souls.
Our temptation is to retreat, to be self-occupied. We crave a sense of safety. We checkout so we will not feel our fears and anxieties.
I find myself longing for a voice to call to us all, urging us to be courageous. What if God did not mean 2020 to be a year of discouragement and defeat, but a year when we are courageous? Could it be that we should brace ourselves to our duties, loving our neighbor as ourselves, loving our enemies, serving, and caring for the least of these? Could it be that 2020 is to be a year we bear up, asking God for strength to carry on, asking God for wisdom to know what to do, asking God for a deep peace that calms our anxieties?
What if God was calling to each of us, saying, “I want you to make 2020 your finest hour.” Would it change what you post on Social Media? Would you seek to understand before you speak? Would you be less concerned about your rights and more concerned with what is just and fair for all?
Maybe the voice I long for does not belong to Winston Churchill. Maybe it belongs to God. Maybe it is his voice crying to our souls to live above defeat and discouragement. Could it be God is challenging you to make this year your finest hour?
In a thousand years (if, as preachers say, the Lord tarries), what will our descendants say about 2020? Will they say, “This was their finest hour.”