Let’s not get tired of doing what is good, for at the right time we will reap a harvest—if we do not give up. [Galatians 6:9 (ISV)]
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But you must let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. [James 1:2-4 (ISV)]
Yesterday, I wrote about the sin of sloth, a sort of spiritual weariness; fortitude is considered its contrasting virtue. Taken captive in 605 BC and forced to trudge the 500 miles from Jerusalem to Babylon, Daniel is an example of fortitude. He lost his home, family, name, language, culture, nation, and possibly his manhood but the one thing he never lost was his faith in God. From the moment he arrived in Babylon, Daniel refused to compromise his principles by refusing to defile himself with prohibited food. Sixty-six years later, he was still determined to stay true to God. In spite of knowing he would be thrown to the lions for his actions, he ignored the law prohibiting praying to anyone but King Darius. Instead, Daniel opened his windows and, as he’d “always done,” prayed to the one true God while offering thanks and asking for God’s help. [Daniel 6:10-11]
A pastor friend was in her fifties when God called her to the ministry. After completing her Lutheran seminary studies and internship, she met all the additional ordination requirements except one: she needed “a call” or placement in a Lutheran church. Although she’d received a call and felt confident it was God’s plan, a problem remained. Caught in a sort of “catch-22,” the call was from a Methodist church for an ordained minister but she couldn’t be ordained without accepting a call from a Lutheran church! Urging her to be patient, the bishop assured her that the Methodists and Lutherans soon would come to a “full communion” agreement so her position with the Methodists would qualify as the required call. The wheels of bureaucracy moved slowly and the Bishop’s promise of “soon” dragged into years. While she worked in Christian education for the Methodist church, my friend was not yet ordained and her dream of becoming a pastor had been put on indefinite hold. In God’s time, however, the Lutherans and Methodists became full communion partners which, among other things, meant they could exchange clergy. Four years after her seminary graduation, my pastor friend was ordained by a Lutheran bishop in the Methodist church. It would have been faster to leave the right church (but “wrong” denomination) in search of the “right” denomination (but wrong church), but she didn’t. Instead, she exhibited fortitude by trusting God and staying where He put her.
Fortitude is not a word we use much today. The Roman Catholic Catechism calls it “the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life.” Our spiritual backbone, fortitude is a combination of endurance, courage, perseverance, strength, and faith. Simply put, fortitude is the grace God gives us when we so desperately need it.
As did my pastor friend several years ago, we’re probably asking, “How long?” We’re not the first ones to ask that question. It had to have been asked multiple times when a few years of refuge in Egypt turned into 400 years and slavery, an 11 day trek across the desert stretched into 40 years, 15 difficult years passed between David’s anointing and his kingship, Job’s suffering seemed to have no end, and Judah’s Babylonian captivity lasted 70 years. Rather than wondering, “How long?” let us pray as did Daniel: by offering thanksgiving and asking for God’s help. May God clothe us with fortitude and fortify us with His strength.
While some of us may have become couch-potatoes during his time of sheltering in place, that’s not truly the sin of sloth. Thought of as one of the seven “deadly sins,” sloth originally was two sins: acedia (meaning absence of care) and trisitia (meaning sorrow). A 4th century monk, Evagrius of Ponticus, listed them (along with gluttony, lust, greed, anger, vainglory, and pride) as the “terrible temptations” of life. Acedia and sadness were seen as particularly dangerous threats to the ascetic life of a monk living in the Egyptian desert, as was Evagrius. The monks easily could grow despondent, lonely, weary or discontented as they prayed, fasted, and labored in their harsh and isolated setting.
I recently read about Derek Black, a young man who grew up immersed in white nationalism. The heir apparent to the WN movement, by the age of twenty, he’d already created a racist website for children and was co-hosting a national radio show advocating prejudice and hostility toward blacks, Jews, immigrants, and other minorities. During college, Black gradually recognized the ugliness of his beliefs but it wasn’t confrontation, heated debate, or ostracism that led to his transformation; it was the hand of friendship!
With each new day feeling like yesterday, we decided to watch the 1993 movie Groundhog Day. In it, the discontented TV weatherman Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, is trapped in a time loop and keeps reliving February 2. At first, he takes advantage of never having to reap the consequences of his selfish actions but grows tired of his hedonistic life. When the predictability of the day causes boredom, depression, and cynicism to set in, he commits suicide several times—only to wake again and again on the same February 2. Eventually, Phil comes to grips with his situation and decides to make the most of it. Among other things, he learns to to play jazz piano, speak French, memorize the life story of everyone in town, sculpt ice, and master the art of flipping cards into an upturned hat. As he betters himself, he begins to better the lives of the people around him. The time loop eventually ends when the changed man finally gets the day right by caring more about others than himself.
With all the online shopping we’re doing during this time of sheltering in place, can you imagine how busy it is in Amazon’s various warehouses? Even though basic items like hand sanitizer, bleach wipes, disinfectant spray and face masks are on back order, we still can get a vast assortment of products like a package of 9,000 ladybugs (along with a ladybug life cycle poster), a “daddy saddle” for piggy back rides (complete with horn and stirrups), a potty putter for our favorite golfer, or even a talking toilet paper spindle.
When we retired, we joked that our pill boxes were the only way we knew the day of the week. Now that we’re sheltering in place, that is more true than funny. For young and old alike, the days are blending one into the other with the only difference between yesterday and today being the news (which just seems to gets worse).
Devotions of the Heart 