“The Lord has really risen!”
It was a crisp 34 degrees when I went out for my walk yesterday morning. Accustomed to listening to a book whenever afoot, I was scrambling to find an appropriate Easter volume. Any dumb bunny could tell you, “Hello! The resurrection!”
Indeed, the resurrection was the logical choice, but the sun was rising. I needed to get on the road, and I did not have a resurrection book in my queue. So I opted for Andrew Robert’s Walking With Destiny, on the life of Winston Churchill.
Roberts has received much praise for his 2018 volume on England’s most famous Prime Minister. The hardback has rested on my credenza for some time. I guess Easter was as good a time as any to begin. But honestly, it didn’t feel right listening to the life of a man when, this day more than any other, the Son of Man takes his rightful place in our hearts and minds.
But listen I did, immediately captivated by this heroic figure whose stature was immediately eclipsed by the risen Christ. Only a few pages into this thousand-page walk I read:
Winston Churchill was born into a caste that held immense political and economic power in the largest empire in world history, and that had not yet become plagued by insecurity and self-doubt. Churchill’s sublime self-confidence and self-reliance stemmed directly from the assurance he instinctively felt in who he was and where he came from. . . . As his greatest friend, was to write of him, ‘He was shielded in his own mind from self-distrust.’ This was to prove invaluable to Churchill at the periods — of which there were many — when no one else seemed to trust him.
Churchill was self-confident. Examine his life. You will discover his confidence came, in part, from his connection with the past. Churchill traced his lineage to the famed John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, “the greatest soldier-statesman in British history.” Churchill described him as a duke “in the days when dukes were dukes.” And the duke was Churchill’s forebearer.
If Ancestry.com awarded points for pedigree, Churchill won! His heritage gave him a confidence that flowed through his pen. Just hours after becoming Prime Minister, and in the depths of England’s despair, he would write,
“I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this life and for this trial…”
At this point, I suddenly became very glad that I picked up Robert’s volume on the British PM. Confidence and destiny take on new meaning when one strolls by the empty tomb. I realized I have greater reason for confidence than Churchill, and a stronger since of destiny than this champion of the twentieth century.
I too am “Walking with destiny.” Mine is not the arrogant self-assurance of one born to British upper class. Rather, it is the holy confidence of a son or daughter of the King.
I will grant the great statesman his impressive heritage, but as a spiritual son of Abraham, I trace my roots to the Lion of the tribe of Judah and to God’s work on my behalf before the foundation of the world.
If anyone has reason for confidence, it’s me; both by heritage and parentage. I am an adopted son of the Father, blood-bought at Calvary and walking with the destiny that . . .
Nothing can separate me from Christ’s love (Romans 8:35)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)
I have a reserved seat at the marriage supper of the lamb (Revelation 19:9)
Churchill reveled in a position made possible by a member of royalty, a duke in the days when dukes were dukes. Impressive indeed, but still a duke resting in the grave and fading from history, who will one day join all creation in bowing to the one who calls me his own, the King of kings and Lord of lords (Philippians 2:9-11).
The resurrection is not reserved for Easter Sunday. Jesus did not overcome sin and death to walk in a parade with the Easter Bunny. He came to give me life — today and every day until THAT DAY he makes all things new.
So this Easter Monday, I am reveling in my position! I am confidently “walking with destiny”; a destiny traced to eternity past, lived in the present, and celebrated with all of creation in the future; a destiny made possible by the Hero of History, the Christ who overcame the grave.
“The Lord has really risen!”
Notes:
I have both hardback and Audible version of Andrew Roberts stellar volume, Churchill: Walking With Destiny. USA: Viking/Penguin Random House LLC. 2018.
“Winston Churchill was born into a caste . . .” from Churchill: Walking With Destiny, page 9-10.
“the greatest soldier-statesman in British history” from Churchill: Walking With Destiny, page 8.
“a duke in the days when dukes were dukes” from Churchill: Walking With Destiny, page 8.
“I felt as if I were walking with destiny . . .” from The Gathering Storm, by Winston S. Churchill. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1948. page 601.
Churchill’s acknowledged arrogance (not conceit) . . . Churchill: Walking With Destiny, page 11.
For God’s work on my behalf before the foundation of the world, see Ephesians 1:3-4.