“Lay Aside Every Weight”

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Last week we visited the Winston Churchill “War Rooms” What we saw reminded us to lay aside everything that hinders or distracts us from the battle we are in and our high calling.

Winston didn’t enjoy using his “war rooms” but he delighted in showing it off to visiting generals, politicians and dignitaries. His pride came largely from his insistence on the fast, efficient way decisions were made using his “Action This Day” labels spread around the war room complex.

What struck us most touring the 9100 square foot memorial to the war rooms and the staff of men and women who served there during the roughly six years it was in use, was the remarkable simplicity and spartan nature of everyone’s accommodations. The historians, the reconstruction specialists have done a remarkable job restoring, preserving and illustrating what is was like for the men, women, military and civilian who worked, ate and slept there in pursuit of one singular goal, survival and ultimately victory.

It was clear that the common, shared essentials and necessities was for the mission only. It was by design not because of scarcity. There were no “provisions for the flesh” in such a time of war. The deprivations were shared by all. Each room as the image above illustrates, provided solely for the necessities of life, the work required and a focus entirely on the fact that all were making sacrifices for the common cause: survival and defeating enemy.

At the same time Churchill was not excusing himself from these sacrifices and the minimalistic environment. He carried the nation and the cause with his unrelenting honesty, optimism and courage. His ability to communicate to the people of England, primarily in London seemed “inspired” at least in political and psychological terms. “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Winston was offering what would be expected and required of all.

His commitment to the fight reflected the dramatic extent to which each citizen, man, woman, soldier, sailor and airman must prepare themselves for, heart, mind, body and soul sounded forth in his address to parliament on June 4^th, 1940 “We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, We shall never surrender'.”

To his old school Churchill gave perhaps his most powerful address on October 29^th, 1941, “You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out [to be] far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist, certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination.

“But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period—I am addressing myself to the School—surely from this period of ten months 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 honor and good sense. Never yield to force: never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

Perhaps only Lincoln and Churchill stand in secular history as peers. Two men that carried, inspired, exemplified and communicated their respective causes to their nations in times of national crises. For Lincoln the Gettysburg address and his second inaugural address epitomized the peak of his ability to speak to the heart of the nation. “"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure,"

All of this, the reflections on Churchill’s War Rooms, the Gettysburg address, remind us that we too are in a great war, a spiritual battle with an enemy that threatens the kingdom to which we belong. Our adversary the devil wants our souls, he seeks to destroy all of God’s goodness, the beauty of His creation, the peace, harmony and order designed for our benefit. He wants not only our lives, but the lives of our children, He wants our worship to be directed to him, He wants to destroy our family, physically and spiritually. He wants us enslaved to sin, evil and the suffering it brings.

Jesus stated emphatically however that He is the rock on which His kingdom is built, and Satan’s gates of hades will never prevail against it. Jesus told us long before Churchill that in this world we will have tribulations, but He says, I have overcome the world. He offered himself first as our example by taking up a cross and expecting us to follow. He assured us that He will never, never leave us.  Nothing, Paul assures us can separate us from His love. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He washed feet and said, “Do you know what I have done TO you?” He gave, he says, “an example that you should follow.” Our call is not to combat but service. This is our battle, denying self and serving others.

Paul likewise is inspirational in his admonishments, encouragements and his examples when he tells us, “¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have ^[d]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:12-14

This “one thing I do…” It is a hard learned lesson for us all. Putting aside so many things that distract us, entice us, serve the flesh and its desires. Laying aside things, anything that hinders us individually and collectively from our calling, our fight, and our mission is essential. Like the rich young ruler that wanted so badly to inherit eternal life, he took pride in what he had not done, and which were bad for him anyway, but to lay aside the things which were “good” for him sent him away sorrowful.

The sooner we realize the significance of the battles we fight, the sooner we can “gird up our loins, put on the armor of God, fight the good fight, endure hardships as a faithful soldier, guard our hearts and minds, and learn to be sober minded and watchful.

Paul exhorts Timothy, “Therefore, if anyone cleans himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work." 2 Timothy 2:21

It is time to act like men and to be strong.

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