The Persistence of Desmond Doss

Part 2 in a Series on Persistence

His rope-burned hands were bleeding now, but he couldn’t let go. The weight on the line felt heavier with each passing moment, threatening to pull him right over the edge of the cliff, still he held tight. Lowering his burden little by little.

His position on the edge of the cliff was completely exposed to enemy fire. A hundred yards away a Japanese soldier had Doss in his sights. Taking a deep breath, Doss’ opponent squeezed the trigger. Clink! For the third time in a row the gun jammed.

Finally, the rope went slack as the weight of his fellow soldier was taken by the ground, three-hundred and some feet below. Doss knelt. With the sound of gunshots ringing in the distance, his head resting on blood-saturated ground, he prayed.

“Please, Lord, help me get one more!”

Crouched low and often crawling, Doss made his way across the darkened battlefield once again. Bodies littered the ground and he stopped at each one – checking for, hoping for, life.

How I Came to Write about Private Doss

This series on persistence, may be the hardest set of articles I’ve set out to write yet. I have to admit that I found myself sitting at my computer and feeling altogether stumped once again. This time with Part 2 - an article I had already put hours into.

But, if at first you don’t succeed try, try again, right? That seems to be the lesson of this series for me. It’s a good rule to follow, but sometimes a little redirection can also be helpful and this time around I have my siblings to thank for coming to my aid…

My sister couldn’t help but laugh a little when she heard that I was ready to give up on yet another article about persistence. Her recommendation was that I write about Desmond Doss, a private who served in the U.S. Army during WW2 and who was awarded the Medal of Honour for rescuing fellow soldiers at the risk of his own life.

“He’s the most persistent man who ever lived.” I believe is what she said.

The problem was, I wasn’t in need of an example. I’d already put hours into an article telling the story of another persistent man. I just needed to finish with the application, to find a way of tying it all together.

But when my brother came along a few minutes later and made the same suggestion, I figured the idea might be worth looking into. Perhaps I did need a fresh start - some fresh inspiration. So, my next few hours were spent - not writing - but researching. Being inspired by a man who truly walked persistence out.

Now, I’m super excited to be sharing a bit of his story with you!

The Persistent Hero

Desmond Doss.

A young man from Virginia, who enlisted to serve in World War 2. Doss was actually drafted but, he was given the opportunity to be exempted from service, due to his position at a shipyard, and turned it down. He believed that he needed to fight for his country.

A Seventh Day Adventist, he also believed that it was wrong to kill. Holding strictly to the fifth commandment, Doss refused to use or even touch a rifle. A conviction that got him into no end of trouble during his military training and eventually got him classified as a ‘conscientious objector’. Doss didn’t think this title was accurate, as he believed the war was justified but that killing was nevertheless wrong. He considered himself more accurately described as a ‘conscientious cooperator.’

Doss was deployed as an unarmed medic with the 77^th division. Which was sent first to Guam, then to Leyte in the Philippines, and finally joined an allied invasion of Okinawa - an island three hundred and forty miles south of Japan. It was for his role in this final conflict that Doss was later awarded the Medal of Honour by President Truman himself.

The famous battle against the Japanese was fought at the top of the Maeda Escarpment (which the soldiers dubbed Hacksaw Ridge due to the terrible carnage that took place there). The American troops ascended the three-hundred-and-fifty-foot cliff by means of cargo nets that Doss and two fellow soldiers secured. At the top, they were faced with a nearly impenetrable battlefield. A piece of land that was heavily entrenched with enemies and already strewn with the dead bodies of hundreds of other American soldiers.

“The Japanese had been there for years, they had that mountain honeycombed and camouflaged, it looked like natural terrain. That's what we had to face." – Desmond Doss

One hundred and fifty-five men of the 77^th division scaled the Maeda Escarpment, of which Doss was one. Only fifty-five of those were able to climb back down when the troop was ordered to retreat. Though he wasn’t injured, Desmond Doss ignored the order and remained on the battlefield with the numerous casualties.

"I had these men up there and I shouldn't leave 'em, they were my buddies, some of the men had families, and they trust me. I didn't feel like I should value my life above my buddy's, so I decided to stay with them and take care of as many of them as I could. I didn't know how I was gonna do it." – Desmond Doss

 As night fell, Doss began to rescue the injured. With nothing but a rope and his own strength, he lowered one soldier at a time down the three-hundred-and-fifty-foot cliff. He worked all night, often under enemy fire.

 A Japanese soldier later recalled having Doss in his sights multiple times, but every time he went to fire on the exposed medic his gun jammed. Doss attributed his survival and the success of his rescue mission to God, saying:

 "When you have explosions and bursts so close you can practically feel it, and you’re not  wounded. When I should have been killed a number of times. I know who I owe my life to as well as my men. That's why I like to tell this story to the glory of God, because I know from the human standpoint, I should not be here."

After each individual rescue, Desmond paused to pray that God would help him save another.

"I just kept prayin', 'Lord, please help me get more and more, one more, until there was none left, and I'm the last one down.'" – Desmond Doss

That night on Hacksaw Ridge, Doss saved the lives of approximately seventy-five men!

A Shared Objective

The story of Desmond Doss didn’t stop there. He continued to demonstrate courage, selflessness, and persistence in the battles of Okinawa. He was badly injured in service. Later he came home to a proud family and a proud country. In the essence of time, I’ll have to leave those stories for you to look up for yourself but, before we finish, let me ask you this:

Do you go after men like Desmond Doss did?

Desmond Doss isn’t just an example of persistence. He persistently sought to rescue men. An objective that you and I, as Christians, are supposed to share.

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at what persistence is and found that true persistence requires motivation. In other words, to persist well you need a reason to persist.

Private Doss had a reason. He was determined to save the lives of as many of his men as he possibly could. Though death surrounded him. Though he was a prime target for the enemy. Though the task demanded every ounce of his physical, mental, and emotional strength, he persisted. You see, Doss knew he was in a battle but he also knew just what he was fighting for.

We are in a battle too, but we often forget that fact. We also have been charged with the mission of saving lives, but we don’t seem to take it as seriously as Private Doss did. We seem to be missing both the motivation and the persistence! 

 The gospel is our primary tool for saving lives, yet none of us appear to be very eager to use it. We don’t like to witness. We don’t like to look silly or to endanger our reputations. So instead of refusing to retreat like Private Doss, instead of praying that we won’t have to leave any casualties behind, we’re standing at the cliff’s edge wishing we could just climb down. 

Christians, we are the medics in this war, the rescue agents, but we aren’t doing our job!

 We may share the gospel - once in a while and generally only if opportunity is placed right in our laps. To us the good news is an obligation, something we are required to speak of out of Christian duty. We don’t know what it is to persistently seek after men’s souls. To earnestly pray that the Lord would give us just one more. Rather we are all too ready to check ‘share the gospel’ off of our spiritual to do list and be able to say we met the Christian requirement.

Desmond Doss wasn’t like us. He stayed on Hacksaw Ridge by choice while the rest of his troop descended to safety. He willingly crawled through a bloody, body-strewn field again and again because he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving someone behind. He loved his fellow soldiers and spent every ounce of his strength on their behalf. It wasn’t a pleasurable task - the rope cut into his hands, his whole body was covered in dirt and other men’s blood, and while he lay on that cliff’s edge lowering men to safety his own life was placed in danger. But Doss wasn’t content to do anything less than rescue every man that was in his power to save.

Why are we content with less than that?

Jesus said that He alone is the means of salvation. Do we believe that? Do we really believe that those who do not have faith in Christ are going to Hell?

I’ll admit that it’s not a nice fact to think about but it is an important one to remember. Because if we forget that we are trying to save lives, we lose our motivation to persist.

Let’s learn some persistence and not give up on the men and women who are stranded on our own Hacksaw Ridge!

In Christ

quiana

Take 2 - An Introduction to Persistence

Part 1 in a Series on Persistence

There would be a large pile of crumpled sheets of paper laying at my feet right now, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m writing on my computer. Thankfully, words aren’t as hard to erase these days as they can sometimes be to write.

This article is about persistence. And the funny thing is, it has proven to be such a challenge to write that I’ve almost given up on it several times. But every time I go to move on to something else, an old saying pops into my head:

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

It’s a good rule. One that applies not only to writing but to every task, from schoolwork to prayer. It’s called persistence.

What is Persistence?

Or we could say, “what does it mean to persist?”

Mirriam Webster’s Dictionary, defines ‘to persist’ as “to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning; to remain unchanged or fixed in a specified character, condition, or position.”  But persistence seems to be a concept that is more easily understood by illustration than by definition. Perhaps that is why Jesus often spoke about persistence in and through parables like this one:

“And [Jesus] said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;  and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.” (Luke xi. 5-8, nkjv)

The Command to Persist

It seems as though everything God tells us to do comes with the additional command to persist in it. For example, on the subject of prayer Luke xviii. 1-7 says,

“Then [Jesus] spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?”

On the subject of knowing Him, God says in Jeremiah xxix.13

“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

When it comes to fighting this spiritual battle we are in, Romans vi.13 tells us,

“Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

And Proverbs xxiv.16 tells us,

“For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.”

Those are just a few of many, many examples.

Is Persistence a Good Thing?

I kind of gave away the answer with all those verses. But I want us to take some time to think about that question because, while the Bible speaks of persistence as a good thing, in practice we often perceive it as bad.

Let’s take for example a habit that a lot of little children have. A habit called nagging. The child asks for something and if he or she doesn’t get an answer, or if they don’t get the answer they want, they ask again. And again. And again, and again, and again. We aren’t too fond of that habit in children. It’s annoying. It’s rude. It’s…bad. Or is it?

Let me ask you another question: What is the first thing you think when you are told to persist in a difficult situation? How about when you are attempting to write an article that you would really rather give up on but you can’t stop thinking of that saying, ‘if at first you don’t succeed try, try again.’

I’ll tell you what my first thought was: “How many times do you try again? Once? Twice? Three hundred times?”

When God tells us to persist, be it in prayer, battling sin and the flesh, witnessing, or studying His word our response is often something similar.

How long do you expect me to persist? How many times am I going to have to knock on this door?

That seems to be our human nature. We don’t enjoy difficulty. Honestly, we would like to avoid it at all costs. It doesn’t take much for us to give up, so when persistence comes into the picture it’s like a lock just got placed on our emergency exit. Which is another reason why we generally aren’t too fond of it.

But what if persistence isn’t meant to be the lock that stops us from escaping a burning building? What if we’ve got persistence all wrong?

Why We Persist and How

Persist is a verb. Think about that for a minute.

It’s an action word.

It’s not just the absence of something. To persist isn’t only to NOT give up, NOT quit, or NOT leave a difficult situation. That is where the mistaken idea of the locked escape door comes from. Truly, persistence is more than just staying inside the building even though it’s on fire.

It’s an action. It’s a choice. And like most actions and choices there is a reason behind it.

So instead of comparing persistence to the locked emergency exit. Let’s imagine for a second that the door is wide open. You could get out of that burning building. You can escape but…

There’s a child still inside who needs to be rescued. In this scenario something is still preventing you from leaving the building and yet your attitude towards it is entirely different. You aren’t being forced to stay in a bad situation just because, rather you are choosing to endure the fire in order to try to save a life.

You want to stay.

Persistence is that desire to continue.

 Going back to our question with this new perspective, let me ask you again: How many times do you try again? For how long do you persist?

True persistence means trying again and again and again. Not once, not three hundred times, but until you succeed. That’s not because you have to, but because you want to.

It’s like that child who is nagging. No one is forcing them to nag, and in fact, most parents are trying hard to teach them not to nag. But they keep it up because they are motivated to persist. They desperately want to succeed and get what they are asking for. They’re convinced that if they just ask one more time they’ll get what they’re after. Those kids don’t find persistence hard because their eyes are set on a goal.

So, in this Christian life we live, what is our goal? Why would we persist in prayer, in fighting against sin, in seeking God?

In Philipians iii.12 Paul wrote, “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

James i.12 says, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

 If you are going to persist, or to press on as Paul says, you need to know why. We have been given an abundance of promises, a rich inheritance in Christ, but most of all we have been given God Himself. Apparently, He thought this article on persistence would be a good opportunity for me to learn some persistence, and I’m so glad He did! Because persistence isn’t just important when it comes to writing, it is needed in the pursuit of Him. And if He isn’t a goal worth pursuing with persistence, I don’t know what is.

In Christ

quiana

P.s. I didn’t get to any historical stories this time around, but stay tuned. This was just the intro. In the next few posts we’ll be looking at how we apply persistence to a few different spiritual tasks and we’ll get to learn from the examples of Christians who have!

Publicly Specific – A Challenge to Pray Boldly

“David,” said Grandfather, looking at me – for once – without the suggestion of a twinkle in his eye, “the day you learn to be publicly specific in your prayers, that is the day you will discover power.”

I didn’t quite understand what he meant, partly because I was just twelve years old, and partly because I was instinctively afraid of the idea. To be publicly specific, he had said. That meant saying, in the hearing of others, “I ask for such and such.” It meant taking a risk that the prayer would not be answered.” - David Wilkerson, The Cross and the Switchblade

From cover to cover, David Wilkerson’s book, The Cross and the Switchblade, is a gripping read. There are parts that are more fast paced, more suspenseful, than this but it was here I paused, turned back the page and re-read the words. 

A Familiar Fear

The ‘instinctive fear’ young David Wilkerson felt was easy to relate to. David was afraid to pray specifically and so are many of us.

 Just recently, a friend told me that the Lord has been challenging her on this very point. “Sometimes I hesitate to pray boldly and specifically,” Katie said, “because I feel that if God doesn’t answer how I asked Him to, I won’t be able to trust Him anymore. I pray ‘safe prayers’ because I don’t want to damage God’s reputation.”

I hadn’t ever thought to categorize prayers as safe or dangerous before, but I’ve applied the principle. I've strategically avoided certain prayers while praying others with ease and I have to agree with Katie, I'm far more likely to avoid specific prayers.

God has said, “Ask and it will be given to you.” (Matthew vii.7), “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do,” (John xiv.13), “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark xi.24) and the list of promises goes on. But there’s a risk involved in that ask.

What if God doesn’t come through?

The Day David Prayed Specifically in Public

“It was by accident that I was forced, one dreadful day, to discover what Grandpap meant. During all of my childhood, my father had been a very sick man. He had duodenal ulcers, and for more than ten years he was not free of pain.

One day, walking home from school, I saw an ambulance tear past, and when I was still more than a block away from home, I knew where it had been heading. From that distance I could hear my father’s screams.

A group of elders from the church sat solemnly in the living room. The doctor wouldn’t let me in the room where Dad was, so Mother joined me in the hall.

“Is he going to die, Mom?”

Mother looked me in the eye and decided to tell me the truth. “The doctor thinks he may live two more hours.”

Just then Dad gave a particularly loud cry of pain and Mother squeezed my shoulder and ran quickly back into the room. “Here I am, Kenneth,” she said, shutting the door behind her. Before the door closed, however, I saw why the doctor wouldn’t allow me in Dad’s room. The bedclothes and the floor were drenched with blood.

At that moment I remembered Grandfather’s promise, “The day you learn to be publicly specific in your prayers is the day you will discover power.” For a moment I thought of walking in to the living room, where the men sat, and announcing that I was praying for my father to get up from his bed a healed man. I couldn’t do it. Even in that extremity I could not put my faith out where it might get knocked down.

Ignoring my Grandfather’s words, I ran just as far away from everyone as I could. I ran down the basement stairs, shut myself up in the coal bin, and there I prayed, trying to substitute volume of voice for the faith that I lacked.

What I didn’t realize was that I was praying into a kind of loud -speaker system.

Our house was heated by hot air, and the great trumpet-like pipes branched out from the furnace, beside the coal bin, into every room of the house. My voice carried up those pipes so that the men from the church, sitting in the living room, suddenly heard a fervent voice pouring out of the walls. The doctor upstairs heard it. My father, lying on his deathbed heard it.

“Bring David here,” he whispered.

So, I was brought upstairs past the staring eyes of the elders and into my father’s room. Dad asked Dr.Brown to wait in the hall for a moment, then he told Mother to read aloud from the twenty-second verse of the twenty-first chapter of Matthew. Mother opened the Bible and turned the pages until she came to the right passage.

“And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,” she read, “believing, ye shall receive.”

I felt a tremendous excitement. “Mother, can’t we take that for dad now?”

So, while my father lay limp on his bed, Mother began to read the same passage over and over again. She read it a dozen or so times, and while she was reading, I got up from my chair and walked over to Dad’s bed and laid my hands on his forehead.

“Jesus,” I prayed, “Jesus, I believe what you said. Make Dad well.”

There was one more step. I walked to the door, opened it, and said, loud and clear:

“Please come, Doctor Brown. I have…” (it was hard) “I have prayed believing that Dad will get better.”

Dr.Brown looked down at my twelve year old earnestness and smiled a warm, compassionate, and totally unbelieving smile. But that smile turned first to puzzlement and then to astonishment as he bent to examine my father.

“Something has happened,” he said. His voice was so low I could hardly hear. Dr. Brown picked up his instruments with fingers that trembled, and tested Dad’s blood pressure.

“Kenneth,” he said, raising Dad’s eyelids and then feeling his abdomen and then reading his blood pressure again. “Kenneth, how do you feel?”

“Like strength is flowing into me.”

“Kenneth,” said the doctor, “I have just witnessed a miracle.”

My father was able to get up from his bed in that miraculous moment, and in that same moment I was delivered of any doubts about the power of going out on a limb in prayer.” - David Wilkerson, The Cross and the Switchblade

To Pray or Not to Pray

As David knew, praying specifically is fraught with risk. 

If you ask for something general, who can say whether or not God answered. But once you get specific, the answer, or a lack thereof, becomes plain for everyone to see.

The same is true of praying publicly.

If you ask for something in private and God doesn't answer your faith may be shaken. But if you've prayed publicly that unanswered prayer could shake the faith of others as well. It could cause you to look presumptuous or foolish. 

There's a lot at risk.

And what about God's reputation? Don't public and specific prayers put God’s reputation at risk?

 “I pray ‘safe prayers’ because I don’t want to damage God’s reputation.” Katie said. “But,” she went on, “God is perfectly capable of protecting His own reputation.”

This is a truth that I so easily forget. God is God. He is faithful, He always has been, and He doesn’t need my help to remain so.

Praying Boldly

 “I hesitate to pray boldly and specifically.” Katie said and I think she hit on something important when she paired those two characteristics together.

 Boldness and faith go hand in hand. We are told to approach God's throne with boldness (Hebrews iv.16) and with faith (James i.6).

If God promised, and God cannot lie, then He will answer when we pray. 

He must for His very nature is to be faithful and true. He might not answer, even a specific request, in the way we expect Him to. Or in the timing that we may be expecting. But answer He always will. Thus, we can come to Him in confidence - with boldness and with faith.

Generation after generation, God has used the specific prayers of men and women to demonstrate His glory and faithfulness in this world. If we avoid His command to ask, we will rob our generation of the opportunity to see His faithfulness and His incredible ability to answer prayer.

So the next time you're faced with the risk of praying specifically or praying boldly, ask yourself what is at risk if you don't!

In Christ

Quiana