When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you couldn’t hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that’s just the place and time that the tide’ll turn. Never trust to prayer without using every means in your power, and never use the means without trusting in prayer. Get your evidences of grace by pressing forward to the mark, and not by groping with a lantern after the boundary-lines, — and so, boys, go, and God bless you!
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never fail you nor forsake you.” Hence we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?”
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Like the sun from out the wave, He has risen up in triumph From the darkness of the grave! He’s the splendor of the nations, He’s the lamp of endless day. He’s the very Lord of Glory Who has risen up today!
I get the strangest feeling that I’ve seen this phrase before… Except it was with a different subject… And turned into… what, memes? Are they still memes if they’re (intended to be) inspirational rather than humorous?
Probably. Not nearly as likely as my Paint-ing people getting even weirder looking, though.
What is Fortitude?
Fortitude – courage in pain or adversity; Middle English via French from Latin fortitudo, from fortis ‘strong’
In other words, fortitude is keeping on when the going gets tough. It’s sticking to your guns when someone calls you out, or pushing toward the goal even though a dozen new obstacles sprung up overnight. It’s choosing the long term over the short term. It’s ignoring the buzz of a text because you’ve got a project to complete. Fortitude is the opposite of, “Squirrel!”
For the record, this is a squirrel and it’s jumping right at you. Don’t worry – it’s declawed. (Poor thing…)
Fortitude is perseverance when stamina is running low and resolve is threadbare. Fortitude is getting up in the morning when all seems lost and doing the best you can. Fortitude is taking the next step forward knowing full well it may mean three steps back.
Fortitude means courage; [it’s for] anybody that’s been in battle, anybody that’s been through difficult times.
Fortitude is doing the next right thing even when your feet are sore, your eyelids are drooping, and your brain aches. It’s trying regardless of the circumstances.
Importance of the Virtue
Without fortitude, flexing the muscle of the rest of the virtues may not matter. Why? Because you can’t exercise virtue if fear paralyzes you. All of the virtues are important and interdependent, and fortitude isn’t even in the top three (cue faith, hope, and love), but without it we may not act on any virtue.
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues; and without courage a man will scarce keep steady to his duty … True fortitude [is] the quiet possession of a man’s self, and an undisturbed doing his duty, whatever evil besets, or danger lies in his way.
Sometimes we mistake a good thing with its extreme version. Remember, moderation is also a virtue; anything taken to an extreme is probably not a good thing. (And for you jokesters, no, a “good” to the extreme is not necessarily “great,” either.)
Are you doing too much? Are you taking on more than is good for you because you are trying to be strong? Do you feel like it’s up to you to solve every problem you get wind of, like the weight of the world is on your shoulders?
Feel free to shrug if it will help you to keep going, though.
We were made to be courageous, steadfast on the path and firm in our trust of the Lord. Courageous doesn’t mean foolish. It doesn’t mean unnecessarily sticking our necks out to prove that we have guts. It’s not mistreating ourselves to make a point. Self-care isn’t sinful; indeed, we’re supposed to be good stewards of our bodies as one of the many gifts entrusted to us.
Have you ever skipped caring for yourself because you thought it was selfish? Consider this your wake-up call. You need to be at your best to help others. I’m not saying spoil yourself, but you do need to take time for yourself: sleep, eat, exercise, wash, and work out the logistics of life. (Logistics include things like working and budgeting to take care of rent and other bills.) You need down time, too, to recuperate and prepare for tasks coming down the pipeline.
Still wary of taking care of yourself? Here’s a question for you: if you were tasked with keeping God’s house in order while He was out of town, would you treat the task with importance, even reverence? Would your level of care change when He came back and asked you to stay and keep up the good work?
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.
The Holy Spirit dwells in you. That makes you God’s holy temple. Take care of God’s holy temple: take care of yourself!
Summary
Fortitude is the courage and perseverance to continue on despite trials and tribulations. It’s facing the demons, figurative and literal, that try to stop you. It’s asking for help when the obstacles become too much for you to handle alone. It is not exploiting yourself, but rather, requires that you care for yourself so that you can carry out your mission.
And yes, you have at least one current mission: if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have been born and if you completed all of them you’d’ve been called home by now. So take care of yourself so you can complete your mission!
Behold My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen, in whom My soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God, the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, Who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to graven images.”
The last several months, I’ve been focusing on myself as I’ve been trying to find work: my resumes, my cover letters, my interview preparation. I’ve had some delightful experiences where I got to get away from all that for a few hours at a time, to think about other people, enjoy other people, and celebrate other people, but it always seemed to end much too soon.
The last few days, despite working on launching this blog, I’ve actually been focusing on someone else: a friend applied for a job, and I asked to be a reference for her. For numerous reasons I won’t list here for privacy reasons, she’s perfect for the role, and I have personal experience granting me the personal knowledge of precisely how perfect she is for the position. She understood that I would know, but she seemed a little reluctant to list me as a reference; did I really mean to offer, or was I just being nice?
I don’t offer that sort of thing if I don’t mean it. What if someone took me up on it and I didn’t know what to say? Then we’d both look foolish. I’m not hanging my reputation on the expectation that the person will double-check with me before writing my name down as a reference.
I didn’t think it would take long: a few hours, maybe a full workday, to write up a one-page letter explaining why she should have the role. I would write about her strengths, what I learned from her, and how much of an impact she had on me as a direct result of us working together. Maybe I’d throw a joke in… on second thought, no – this is too important to risk that. I would definitely talk about how she deftly managed a super stressful situation that I felt responsible for without taking it out on me. Definitely going in there.
Then I get the email: it’s a questionnaire.
What? Weird. I wasn’t expecting that. Okay, so, it probably just asks the questions I prepared answers to, maybe with slightly different tacks, and a curveball or two.
… Well, there was definitely a curveball.
The inquiries were more like interview questions, including one asking about weaknesses (and none asking specifically about strengths). I wrote up answers, walked away, and returned to entirely rewrite them. I spent hours on a question just to re-read it to determine I didn’t answer the question so much as I dodged it, re-writing it to answer properly. The question I took the longest time contemplating was the final, open-ended, “what else should we know?” Everything. If you knew what I know, you wouldn’t waste time with any other candidates.
Instead of spending about a day on it, I spent about three: I read through the questions to figure out what I was getting into and walked away for the day; I started responding and learned I hadn’t reflected enough yet; I pondered more; I returned to the active process and worked late into the night to get some semblance of answer down so I had something to change rather than fight with a blank-but-for-inquiry sheet. Her future depended on this, and I struggled to make sure she got the best recommendation I could provide.
Today, I submitted my work. Then I went to meet her in person, unannounced, to deliver a courtesy copy.
She wasn’t expecting me, but she made time to talk with me for nearly two hours. This is a woman with a family, and a full career (and a half – one full time, one part time), and I just knocked on her office door to deliver a courtesy copy, at which time she insisted I sit down to talk with her, to catch up. We traded war stories, enjoyed each others’ company, and just chatted.
At one point, she thanked me repeatedly for taking the time to write this recommendation. (I didn’t tell her how much effort it took for me to get it right.) I thanked her for allowing me to write it; it granted me an opportunity for a shift from the “woe-is-me” job search mindset to an attitude of gratitude. I spent the entire time working on the recommendation thinking about how wonderful it was to have worked with her, how she has impacted my life, and how much the hiring group has to gain from hiring her. There was so much to be grateful for just because I was able to learn from and work with her.
Being able to take advantage of such an opportunity – to support someone who may need it with words of well-deserved encouragement – is truly a blessing. I hope others have the same opportunity and feel the same warmth as a result.
