Reaching your wits' end

In the past fortnight, I have visited Chartwell, the beloved home of Winston Churchill, and also watched the film The Darkest Hour. Churchill is best remembered as a war-leader, politician and historian. He did not have a happy childhood: his experience of love came through his nanny named Elizabeth Everest. She gave the young Winston a Christian-based upbringing.

Whilst in his 20s, he was a correspondent covering the Boer War. One of his adventures in this period was his escape from a prison train. His bid for freedom led him into a very real spiritual encounter and the loving (religious) instruction given by his childhood nanny was not without effect.

With his would-be captors nearby and not knowing which direction to go for refuge, he slumped to the ground in desperate depression. He was, he said, ‘…completely baffled, destitute of any idea of what to do or where to turn. I found no comfort in any of the philosophical ideas which some men parade in their hours of ease and strength and safety; they seemed only fair-weather friends. I realised with awful force that no exercise of my own feeble wit and strength could save me from my enemies and that without the assistance of that High-Power which interferes in the eternal sequence of causes and effects, … I could never succeed. I prayed long and earnestly for help…’ He went on to speak of how he was immediately filled with a peace that was without logic and how his deliverance was both quick and amazing.

Churchill’s account reminds me of Psalm 107. In this piece of prose, we read of four categories of people who, like Churchill, are at their wits end. Firstly, one group is in abject poverty, looking for somewhere to live and not knowing where their next meal is coming from; they see their lives ebbing away. Another group has rebelled against God’s commands and are suffering as a result. Others are foolish in their conduct and so are afflicted accordingly, to the point where they even loathe food; they need healing because death is at their door. Finally, there are those who are being terrorised by the shear forces of nature; things utterly outside of their control. All are in complete despair. However, of each group, we read, ‘Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.’

We don’t have to wait until we reach our own ‘darkest hour’ before we too can turn to God. We may be encouraged by Churchill’s story of deliverance but, even better, listen to the last verse of Psalm 107 which says, ‘Whoever is wise, let them heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.’

#politicians #Christianfaith #sovereignty #weakness #philosophy