Fortitude

Because Jesus is alive he faces Covid 19 with us.   My devotions focused on the word fortitude recently.  It made me think about my life at the moment.  Many Scripture verses were quoted like Ps.27:1  The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom should I be afraid?

And there were two contrasting quotes.  One made me smile, from John Buchan's Mr. Steadfast:

...The big courage is the cold-blooded kind, the kind that never lets go even when you're feeling empty inside, and your blood's thin, and there's no kind of fun or profit to be had, and the trouble's not over in an hour or two but lasts for months....One of the men here was speaking about that kind and he called it Fortitude.  I reckon fortitude's the biggest thing a man can have - just to go on enduring where there's no guts or heart left in you....

The other challenged me about being an Easter person. Written at the turn of the nineteenth century by Francis Paget (Bishop of Oxford). I have slightly amended the language.

There is something in the very name of Fortitude which speaks to the almost indelible love of heroism in our hearts; but perhaps the true Fortitude may often be less heroic, a more tame and business-like affair than we are apt to think. It may be exercised chiefly in doing very little things, whose value lies in this, that, if one did not hope in God, one would not do them; in secretly dispelling moods which one would like to show; in saying nothing about one's lesser troubles and vexations; in seeing whether it may not be best to bear a burden before one tries to see whether one can shift it; in refusing one's self excuses which one would not refuse for others...And while we wait ,,,,we may be gaining from the love of God a hidden strength and glory.....we may be growing in the patience and perseverance of the saints...this is the normal task of many lives; in this people show what they are like. 

So many on the front line with the NHS and in others are showing heroic fortitude and we thank God and keep praying for them.  But there is a fortitude in doing very little things well with Jesus.

Give me fortitude, Lord, built on  your gifts of dynamic faith and vibrant hope, so that  today I may boldly approach the business of living, turning to you in every situation for your unfailing grace, knowing that I shall go forth in your strength alone, make perfect in my weakness; and may all love and all glory be yours, now and for ever. Amen.