I am reading a book about the French Resistance.
I have not read a book in a long time. The back lawn is a lovely sea of dandelions, amazing in their long stalks with bright yellow flowers above.
I was supposed to mow them, go bicycle riding etc, but decided not to. I decided to read the afternoon away, and so I have.
Years ago when coming out of depression I was very timid, easily jumpy, frightened and cried at anything basically. I was a nervous wreck and had no reason to live other than helping my 4 children once their mother had left us.
I went to the library, and at the door I would pray in my mind asking God to show me any books I should read, and more than a few times I read about the French resistance and the amazing people who were in it, the training and the incredible courage of those facing the Gestapo and the chances of torture and death if caught.
Often I would feel the fears they felt, the horror, the excitement as I delved soulfully into these pages and discovered that people when faced against enormous odds made it through and beat the odds, and most were believers in God.
There were times when I cried when someone I got to like, a good decent courageous character was caught, tortured and died and yet gave away no information, something I hoped that I would have done in their shoes. But it was not that amazed me. What amazed me was that they even joined the resistance knowing full well what would happen to them if they were caught.
The Gestapo were pure evil, and killing people was their joy, hurting, torturing and maiming people something they were experts at. In one case a man was caught and he told on hundreds of resistance people, men and woman, to save his own skin, yet other told nothing even under the most horrid tortures
So why sign up?
Because they loved their country, their freedom, they wanted to see the children grow up in a free country and they hated the Gestapo and its evil ways. But, as you may think, someone else can fight for them and they can stay relatively safe, away from it all and wait for the freedom to come.
But it was a different age than now. People today sit and agree with the government poisoning them with fluoride, chemicals in food, watch the lands be raped for its goodness and then destruction and poverty left behind, species wiped out, children raped, abused, kill and the public turn over the newspaper to see what is on TV that night.
Back then there were many distractions, though no TV, but people were more outdoors active, walked a lot, led good lives and valued family values. Courage was something that fired the soul as people demanded decency (today perverts teach children in schools as transgender etc), people who were of good moral standards were seen as valuable in high palaces and looked up to for their valuable input into society and the way the world run.
In one case a 14 years old blind boy run his own resistance movement and when caught in a concentration camp and dying of starvation his small amount of food was stolen from him by his fellow prisoners. He prayed, became unwell, and when he recovered the people left his food alone and let him eat it even though they were starving on their own meagre rations – they saw what they were doing wrong and they looked after him.
The current book I am reading a woman was a resistance leader of a large underground group who were known as The Ark, Noah’s Ark. And the members, under her choosing were named after animals. Her code name was The Hedgehog, as she saw herself as pointing her bristles at the enemy – her real name was Marie-Madeleine. She was very successful and courageous.
The Book is called The French Resistance, by Don Lawson.
Reading about their courage gave me more courage at a time where I was struggling to go into a supermarket.
Knowing what is right and wrong has always helped me with courage, but knowing what others endured, did and how they faced a known enemy with courage has always amazed me, but they ultimate courage is following God because we are often asked to do the thing we fear the most and we are rewarded with God’s full backup and service.
The amazing story of Basil Embry who walked through German occupied France during the second World War after his place was shot down, an Englishman, a firm believer in God, and he made it and lived on to fight again.
His courage, faith belief in God and stubborn refusal to give were mighty lessons to me. Much of this new courage I have today came from people like Embry.
All the best from James Martin Sandbrook.
Thursday, 5 December 2019, 7:26:00 PM.