Tag: Band of Brothers

Fortitude

I am writing this on June 5, 2025, a day before the 81st anniversary of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy. Soon, I will actually be standing on the beaches and bluffs of France’s Normandy coast. I will follow the actions of 101st Airborne’s Easy Company on a Band of Brothers tour. I will get to stand in the tree line of a Brecourt Manor pasture that housed the massive 105mm (~4″) artillery guns that fired on the landing beaches over a mile (1.6 km) away – guns disabled by Easy Company.

Ever since reading  The Longest Day as a high school junior, I’ve been captivated by the Normandy Invasion, known as Operation Overlord. It gripped my imagination. I was struck by the sheer scale and grim intensity of the Normandy landings, as 156,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches. With over two years of preparation, Operation Overlord was a massive undertaking involving close to three million armed forces personnel, not to mention the support of millions of civilians. The sheer scale of preparation to liberate France – and eventually all of Europe – from the grip of a God-disregarding Nazi regime completely astounded me, and still does.

The reality that many of the landing troops were near my age was not lost on me as I read The Longest Day. I could not fathom the courage it must have taken for the troops to step off their Higgins Boats. I was pretty sure I didn’t have the courage required. Nor I suspect, did they. But they did it anyway.

Courage!

After God rescued his people from Egyptian slavery, they spent 40 years in preparation to enter the land that He had set aside for them to occupy and live. Preparation? Yes – the people were learning how to be people of the King, the one true God. They were discovering his sovereignty and character. They were discovering how to live together as a kingdom of people under His Kingship. They were living out the commandments. Preparation indeed.

The land was to be the beachhead from which they would restart their mission as God’s people chosen with the task of being a blessing to the nations around them, a kingdom of priests. But the land was inhabited by a morally corrupt people who disregarded Yahweh’s sovereignty. How corrupt? One example: Sacrificing children to the god Molech was a common feature of their cultic religion.

After the 40 years of preparation, Moses had died, and the leadership baton was passed on to Joshua. He was tasked with leading the millions of Israelites into Canaan to replace the evildoers. God had judged the Canaanites and found them wanting, so they were about to be displaced. And it was Joshua’s responsibility to lead the people into the land.

I often ponder the conversation between God and Joshua as He prepared Joshua to lead the people of Israel across the Jordon River to inherit the “promised land…”

God to Joshua: “Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.  Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:6-9, also Deuteronomy 31)

Three times, God connected strength and courage in his instructions to Joshua.  In Hebrew poetic tradition, anything stated three times demands attention. So, being a dabbler in Hebrew, I poked around a bit to see what I could discover.  Strong and courageous are linked because they are related words.1  The Hebrew word for courage is amats, which means: To be determined, to make oneself alert, to strengthen oneself.   Courage is about an internal resolve and fortitude.2

Interesting!  Courage in Hebrew thought seems to have nothing to do with acts of bravery, which is what usually comes to mind when we think of courage.  It seems to have more to do with internal resolve. I immediately think of the Apostle Paul’s statement of resolve in his letter to the Philippian Christians:

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness].  (Philippians 3:10, Amplified)

The determined purpose, the internal resolve, of the young men who stormed the Normandy beaches was to reach the shore and establish a beachhead from which they could liberate the land. Joshua’s determined purpose was to lead Yahweh’s kingdom people into a land from which they could become a blessing to the world around them. As Christ-followers, as Kingdom people, I suspect a fair question to ask ourselves, both individually and corporately, might be…

What might you say is your determined purpose?

1Addendum July 2025. The correct term for the linking of two terms like strong and courageous is hendiadys: the expression of a single idea by two words connected with “and,” e.g., nice and warm, when one could be used to modify the other, as in nicely warm.

2Interestingly, Operation Overlord included a massive deception operation designed to mislead the Nazi High Command into believing an invasion would take place in either Norway or Pas de Calais, France. The deception plan was called Operation Fortitude.

An interesting concept…

One of my favorite ministry experiences over the years has been conversations with collegeish-aged young adults. For several years we had a dozen or so young folks in our living room where we wrestled with scripture, our theologies, and the implications for daily life. After a hiatus of about six years, that opportunity has resurfaced for us.

One of the reasons I love hanging out with this age of young people is to watch them become critical thinkers – willing to wrestle with and ask questions people my age are less inclined to address. I remember several years ago a young woman asked a most compelling question to consider. I don’t entirely remember the context, but the question went something like this: “Do we love Jesus or do we love the concept of Jesus?”  

As I’ve periodically pondered this thought over the past several years, it seems the question can be restated in another way.  Are we truly interested in being Christ-followers or are we more enamored with the concept of being a Christ-follower?

I fell in love with my wife, Barb, 48 years ago.  We couldn’t wait to be married (and those that know us, know that story!).  To be honest, I was probably as much captivated by the concept of being married to her as I was in love with her.  As with any newlyweds, the first year was filled with its share of ups and downs.  That first year I learned this was the real deal; that I needed to figure out how to love and be loved.  A concept of being married wasn’t going to get me very far.

By definition, concept suggests an abstract idea or a general notion.

Hmmm…a general notion wouldn’t have gotten me very far unless I put some wheels to it.  A general notion of marriage wouldn’t have sufficed.  It has taken intentionality and determination to learn how to love and care for Barb well.

I’m reminded of the Israelites as they wandered the desert for 40 years with the concept of the Promised Land on the horizon.  When push came to shove and it was time to cross the Jordan River to take the land, God spoke these words to Joshua, their leader: Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. (Joshua 1:6).  God told Joshua several times to be strong and courageous.  Poking around in the Hebrew, I discovered that this phrase is laced with intentionality and determination.  God knew the concept of a Promised Land alone wasn’t going to get them across the river.

I watch Band of Brothers at least once a year.  The D-Day invasion was one of the most remarkable events in modern history.  The invasion concept was a couple of years in the making. On June 6, 1944, Allied troops numbering 156,000 had to set their concept of the invasion aside and put the wheels in motion.  They needed to be strong and courageous, invading enemy territory with intentionality and determination.  Something that always amazes me as I watch movies or read books about the D-Day Invasion is the numerous mishaps that occurred throughout the operation. The concept actually failed the troops in many ways, yet through intentionality and determination, the operation was a success, though at great cost.

Reading through the Gospel of Matthew recently, I saw glimpses of what we are talking about.  An example:

Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”  (Matthew 8:19-22)

Jesus wasn’t being rude.  I suspect the teachers of the law were more interested in the concept of the law than its demands (i.e., love your neighbor, love your enemy, don’t retaliate, etc.).  Jesus, the fulfillment of the law, was “saying let’s go do it.”  

Few chose to follow.  They might have been more enamored with the concept of following than actually doing it. In his book, The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard suggests that we have made discipleship/following Jesus optional:

“A disciple is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do.”

More than a concept. Discipleship and follower-ship only happen with intentionality and determination. Or as the Apostle Paul told the Philippian Christians regarding his own follower-ship…

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly]... (Philippians 3:10, AMPC)

This was Paul’s determined purpose as he wrote from captivity in Rome, approaching 60 years of age and likely aware that he was nearing the end of his life.

More than a concept!