Thursday, September 13, 2007

Send Me Your Strong

Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane -
Strong for the rage of the battle; sane, for I harry them sore;
Send me men girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core;
Swift as the panther in triumph, fierce as the bear in defeat,
Sired of bulldog parent, steeled in the furnace heat.

And I wait for the men who will win me -
And I will not be won in a day.
And I will not be won by weaklings, subtle, suave, and mild,
But by men with the hearts of vikings, and the simple faith of a child;
Desperate, strong and resistless, unthrottled by fear or defeat,
Them will I gild with my treasure, them will I glut with my meat.

Robert Service, Law of the Yukon

Just yesterday I was reminded of the rarity of a Godly man; one willing to fight the battle for truth and right to the very end; one who will not quit, though his hair is singed by the flame and his hands are raw from the sword.

There are plenty of weaklings and cowards. There are plenty of quitters and whiners.
Thank God there are some men who are "grit to the core." Thank God that there are men who, when cursed and tormented, broken and bleeding from battle, still fight on.

God give us more like these!

1 comment:

Drebbel said...

I really like the poem; it is real encouraging. It also makes me think about a thought I had on Proverbs 31. Most people with whom I've talked only consider the aspect of a virtuous wife. But I've pondered the question, "If that is for a wife, what must the requrements for a virtuous husband look like?" Perhaps this poem is only begining to answer that question.