Never Give In - Never Give Up

"This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." (Winston Churchill, 1941)

History is the rear view mirror for humanity. We either learn from it or we are doomed to repeat it (ironically, Churchill is one of the people credited with saying this). In spite of all of his flaws, Churchill was one of the most influential people of his generation. His life demonstrated the essence of his speech.

He lost a considerable fortune in the crash of 1929.  While in New York in 1931, Churchill was hit by a car. He suffered significant injuries and experienced severe depression as a result. Dubbed a failure in WWI, he later returned to Parliament and led his country to stand against Hitler's Nazi regime with the help of the Allied forces. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature and eventually knighted by the Queen.

In How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins calls people like this "individuals who are constitutionally incapable of capitulation."  Collins goes on to say "failure is not so much a physical state as a state of mind; success is falling down, and getting up one more time, without end" (p. 123).

Wisdom literature says, "for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity" (Proverbs 24:16, NASB).  There is a certain tenacity that is required to live in the present moment; it's the same fortitude that enabled historical figures to keep getting up.  It takes faith, or unlimited trust to say "if I keep getting up, things will change, things will get better."  There is always tomorrow, there is always hope, there is always faith to say "Never Give In - Never Give Up!"

Have faith my human friends! God is with you when you are down -  He is with you when you stand back up.