TO ENJOY THE MUSIC IN TODAY’S POST, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK ABOVE IN YOUR EMAIL, OR click here
Jean-Jacques Rousseau claimed that children were by nature good and learned best through their own unfettered life experiences. It wasn’t either good or necessary for parents to interfere.
Rousseau also said, “The first thing a child should learn is how to endure.”
- Endurance is needed to successfully navigate any life.
- Endurance is needed when you encounter something you cannot change.
When you find yourself on your knees, praying as Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane.
Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.
Endurance is needed when the cup is NOT taken, when life has given you an unequivocal “NO.”
Take heart!
Let me share the story of Arthur, a man who learned how to endure such times.
After I stopped drinking I bought a cabin on the Swinomish Indian Reservation near LaConner, Washington.
I leased my land from Norma, a native elder, who was married to a Scotsman named Arthur, who just happened to chair an AA meeting I attended in LaConner.
In my sobriety I was having my own Gethsemane moment:
- My marriage was broken
- My business was broken
- My spirit was broken
My life seemed hopeless and I felt helpless. Arthur could see I knew nothing of the Serenity Prayer.
So he decided to shed a little light into my life.
After one meeting he suggested we go out for coffee, and he shared his remarkable story with me.
Arthur had been in the Army during the Second World War. At the time of Pearl Harbor he was stationed in Manila.
It wasn’t long after that the Japanese invaded the Philippines, sending the American Army to the Island of Corregador to make a last stand. After many bloody battles the American forces surrendered and became prisoners of war.
The Japanese forced the soldiers to march 65 miles, from Mariveles to San Fernando, in what became known as the Bataan Death March.
On the march there was severe physical abuse and wanton killings. Any POW who fell or was caught on the ground was shot.
Arthur said his squad of six men survived by:
- sticking together,
- sharing what they had, and
- helping one another endure the grueling march.
But the march was only the beginning.
They were to spend the next three years enduring a living hell, moving from one work camp to the next.
What kept Arthur and his squad alive was their unconditional commitment to one another. It was NOT “each man for himself.” It was all about — “we are in this together.”
Think of the challenge it was to just keep living. Of the 27,465 U.S. military personnel captured and interned by the Japanese 11,407 died.
A death rate of more than 40%.
When Arthur shared the fact that all six in his squad survived he choked back tears and stared off into the distance, caught in a memory loop.
When he returned he just shook his head and said, “We never would have made it if we just tried to survive on our own. The fact we fought for one another was the key to getting through.”
He shared how they each focused on what the weakest among them needed to survive. It was because they ALL looked after each other that they ALL had made it through.
“You want to know what I learned in captivity? You can’t make it in life without having friends and being a friend. The life you keep is equal the life you give away.”
Arthur’s lesson of enduring life is also one of enduring friendship.
The hard things in life are so much more easily endured with the help of others.
Not alone.
Just a thought…
Pat
REMEMBER: TO ENJOY THE MUSIC IN TODAY’S POST, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK AT THE TOP OF YOUR EMAIL, OR click here
Today’s music is The Star Spangled Banner, sung by Whitney Houston at the 1991 Super Bowl — selected by Jeremy Saulter.