Stories of Faith and Courage From World War II (43 page)

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.

—Philippians 2:57

A
UGUST 5

Patience with Humanity

Early in the war Ernie Pyle went to North Africa as a correspondent. Already famous for his human-interest stories, he spent most of his time with troops in the front line, writing about the war from their perspective. He was able to report on the transition of these young Americans from civilians to warriors, and he conveyed his belief that they were adapting to the demands of combat and were measuring up well as soldiers. Speaking for them and himself, he wrote,

“The new war finally became the normal life to us.”
³¹⁵
In one poignant article he focused on a profound change within himself, which he considered a “personal redemption”:

[There is] a new patience with humanity that I’ve never known before. When you’ve lived with the unnatural mass cruelty that mankind is capable of inflicting upon itself, you find yourself dispossessed of the faculty for blaming one poor man for the triviality of his faults. I don’t see how any survivor of war can ever be cruel to anything, ever again.
³¹⁶

The reporter’s inclination toward forgiveness of human faults and patience with others are healthy sentiments, and his message is a positive one. Those who have witnessed cruelty on a large scale should be especially averse to inflicting it on a personal level. However, I believe it would be a mistake to consider our own faults trivial when compared with the larger evils of war. War is a product of human weakness and reflects these “trivial” faults on a larger scale. In other words, we are all sinners, and our sin is what causes human conflict at the personal and the international level. Only when we fully accept this fact about ourselves can we understand our desperate need for a savior and redeemer.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

—1 Timothy 1:15

A
UGUST 6

Comforting a Mother

Usually the folks at home did their best to cheer up their sons and daughters overseas. Occasionally, however, a soldier had to encourage a loved one back home. Chaplain Walter Hanley was serving in New Guinea when he learned that his mother in Ohio was extremely ill with little hope of recovery. He also had little hope of getting home on leave. He did his best to comfort her with a letter:

You have been a good mother to us all, and all that we children have we owe to you. With Clarence’s and Papa’s deaths, your ill-health for years and the depression, your life has been a hard one and yet your faith & your prayers have given you the strength to go on. When the train pulled out of the station I think you knew you would never see me again, and your strength has encouraged me all of these months. If God asks of you this sacrifice for my work was needed here for these boys, I know you will have the strength to make it. The other priests here said their masses, as I did, this morning for you, and I know Almighty God will care for you… Whatever good I may be able to do in the priesthood will be a testimony of your prayers and your struggles to bring me there… I know that Papa and Clarence are waiting for you and that our prayers will be for you every day until you join them in heaven.
³¹⁷

This letter is an inspiring insight into a strong family. This strength obviously derives from a mother’s faith that has brought her family close to God and to each other. With this faith they were able to deal with the hardships of war and pain of death with confidence and hope. Faith and family remain the surest sources of strength to meet the constant challenges of this world.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” which is the first commandment with a promise “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

—Ephesians 6:14

A
UGUST 7

Family Relationships

During the war women on the home front took on new roles. Edith Sokol married Victor Speert in 1942 and moved from base to base with him fourteen times over the next two years. When Victor was deployed to Europe in 1944 Edith got a job in a day care center. Before long she was named director of the True Sisters Day Care Center in Cleveland. Her new responsibilities were important and challenging. In October 1945 she wrote to her husband about how she thought she was changing:

Last night Mel and I were talking about some of the adjustments we’ll have to make to our husbands’ return. I must admit I’m not exactly the same girl you left I’m twice as independent as I used to be and to top it off, I sometimes think I’ve become “hard as nails” hardly anyone can evoke any sympathy from me. No one wants to hear my troubles and I don’t want to hear theirs. Also more and more I’ve been living as I want to and I don’t see people I don’t care about I do as I d ____ please. As a whole, I don’t think my changes will affect our relationship, but I do think you’ll have to remember that there are some slight alterations in me.
³¹⁸

Of necessity, many women became more independent during the war years. Large numbers left their homes to enter the workforce, representing a new phenomenon in our culture. Those women staying at home also became used to shouldering more responsibility and to making decisions on their own. In the decades since the war these trends have continued and have presented challenges within the family. Fortunately, even though the culture has changed, our guidelines for successful family relationships have not. The Bible continues to be our authority. God ordained that marriage should be a relationship of such depth that it reflects Christ’s own all-consuming and sacrificial love for his church. In this sense it is a partnership between a husband and wife who love each other and submit to each other unselfishly and generously.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord… Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy… each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

—Ephesians 5:21, 22, 25, 33

War bond poster. (National Archives)

World War II recruiting poster. (National Archives)

Women working on a B-17 bomber. (National Archives)

A
UGUST 8

For Those Who Suffer

Roy Campanella was a baseball player during World War II and was one of the first African Americans to play in the major leagues. As catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he played in five World Series and was a league All-Star eight times. In 1958 his career ended when he was paralyzed in an auto accident. While going to therapy every day at the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in New York City, he noticed a bronze plaque on the wall inscribed with a poem written by an unknown Confederate soldier. After reading it twice, he was filled with “an inner glow that had me straining to grip the arms of my wheelchair.”
³¹⁹

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey…
I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things…
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise…
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God…
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things…
I got nothing I asked for but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among men, most richly blessed!
³²⁰

If we can look at our trials in life as opportunities to grow closer to God and to be a more effective witness for him, then truly every trial can be a blessing, to ourselves and to others. The courage to adopt this attitude doesn’t come from within. Only in Jesus Christ can we find the inner resources to lead such a life.

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

—2 Corinthians 12:10

A
UGUST 9

I’ll Wait for You Forever

Couples separated by the war were affected in different ways. Some could not stand the strain. Fortunately, some not only endured but even grew stronger. Relying on God and their faith, Ruth Kwall and Joseph Portnoy remained true to each other through a long engagement. When Joseph could get a three-day pass they were finally married in 1943. Ruth wrote a letter affirming where the strength in their relationship came from:

I want to tell you again, more surely than ever, that no matter how long or hard the siege may be I’ll wait for you forever. I know, and darling you must too, that God in heaven will guard this precious thing and help preserve it and us for a time when the world will need tangible examples to show it that war does not end things; that good, beautiful emotions live on forever. I’m nineteen, Joe, but I know deep down inside me that the emotion I feel, that we feel is older, is mature that it has made me grow to more of the sort of person you’d have me be. War isn’t funny and I know we’ll be tested even further than we ever dreamed could be possible.
³²¹

Echoing these feelings, Joseph responded, “You are wise to rely on your complete faith that everything will turn out right for us, and knowing that you think like that, I also feel free to exercise my faith.”
³²²
This couple is a living testament to a great spiritual truth: if two people strive to grow closer to God, they will inevitably grow closer together. As they put God at the center of their relationship, Ruth and Joseph Portnoy experienced a deepening of their love in spite of the hardships and separation of wartime.