The Discipline of Spiritual Tenacity

"Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

I have always loved this speech given by Aragorn, King of Gondor, at the Black Gate of Mordor toward the end of Tolkien's Return of the King, and I think it is a good example of the tenacity of which Oswald writes: "Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered." Aragorn's task was to distract the huge armies of the enemy, Sauron, so that his hero -- a humble hobbit creature named Frodo who was behind the Black Gate, deep in the heart of Mordor -- could destroy the ring of power. Numbers and odds were against them both, but they refused to give up. They operated on the thread of hope that good would win out in the end.

We have more than a thread of hope. Our Hero has already conquered, and we are fighting on the winning side. "There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled" -- Oswald.

The problem is that reality does not always line up with what we see before us. We see the wicked prosper. We see our dreams dashed and noble ideas losing. We see the people we love struggle. And we ourselves struggle with despair. Hear God's call to spiritual tenacity:

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging . . . The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress," Psalm 46:1-3, 7.

I wish I could end there, but a second problem presents itself. My day-to-day existence scarcely resembles Aragorn's noble call to battle. My life does not appear to be fraught with life-and-death matters, and the battle lines are not so clearly defined as men against orcs. Tenacity, however, is still required. Perhaps more so. Remember Oswald's words from a few days ago: "Drudgery is one of the finest touchstones of character there is." The battle -- whether visible to me or not -- does wage and I am a warrior in it. The enemy wants my life, my soul, and he wields the weapons appropriate to the particular struggle -- jealousy, boredom, despair, idols.

God's call to tenacity remains the same: "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth," Psalm 46:10.