WORD
Ever had one of those moments of perfect clarity during a time of confusion? As they say, that ah-ha moment when an idea or even a single word lights up the perfect path when you are craving direction? Something like when you are driving and realize that you don’t know where you are. But then, a familiar landmark comes into view and you get your bearings; you know exactly what direction to take. It’s entirely possible that a single word can determine the direction of a life. And, not only a life, but a society, or even a nation.
For example, in early July 1863, the Confederate States were poised for nationhood. General Robert E. Lee had been so emboldened by victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville that he was on the march to invade the Union North. His Army of Northern Virginia would clash with General George Mead’s Army of the Potomac which had formed a fish-hook shaped defensive line just south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Both generals reasoned that the victor at Gettysburg would win the Civil War.
If General Lee’s forces could win a victory at Gettysburg, Britain and France would be enticed to recognize the confederacy. They might even help break the blockade of southern ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast. If General Mead’s forces could win a victory, the Northern populous and politicians would continue to support the Civil War and President Lincoln – the Union would be preserved.
The apex of the battle would occur on a 150-foot-high rocky hill which became known as Little Round Top, two miles away from Big Round Top. The major fighting would be in the valley between them, but the crucial battle would be at Little Round Top where two Alabama regiments were given the mission of out-flanking the left end of the Union line.
Union General Strong Vincent led the 20th Maine Regiment, commanded by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, to Little Round Top, arriving there minutes before the Confederate soldiers arrived to capture the hill. There he issued this order – “I place you here! This is the left of the Union line. You understand? You are to hold this ground at all costs!”
Years after the Battle of Little Round Top, Colonel Chamberlain described the siege with these words:
The roar of all this tumult reached us on the left, and heightened the intensity of our resolve. Meanwhile, the flanking column worked around to our left and joined with those before us in a fierce assault, which lasted with increasing fury for an intense hour. The two lines met and broke and mingled in the shock. The crush of musketry gave way to cuts and thrusts, grapplings and wrestlings. The edge of the conflict swayed to and from, with wild whirlpools and eddies…..
When the smoke cleared, the battlefield was strewn with blue and gray uniformed dead and dying. The 20th Maine soldiers had repulsed the assault on their line, but, they had expended all their ammunition in the melee. Sensing their opponent’s vulnerability, the Confederate soldiers were forming for another charge up Little Round Top.
In a moment of inspiration and with all eyes upon him, Colonel Chamberlain stepped up onto a great rock where his regiment’s colors were suspended on the billowing wind. There, he uttered a single word which galvanized his force: Bayonet! Not fix bayonet — just “bayonet.”
That single word “caught like fire” and swept along the defensive line. “The grating clash of steel in fixing bayonets told its own story. The edge of the left wing ‘rippled, swung, straightened, and curved into a sickle.’ ” Two hundred men swinging like a piercing steel fence charging “half a thousand” soldiers in gray. The enemy stopped and attempted to mount a defense, but the frenzied bayonets pressed through every space. The utterance of a single word had led to the routing of an element twice its size and had sent them running “like a herd of cattle.”
On the morning of July 4th, 1863, discouraged and defeated, Lee’s Army retreated back to Virginia in a miles long wagon train. A total of 57,225 men had died in the campaign. Had it not been for that single word and the Union victory at Little Round Top, the amber waves of grain, the purple mountain majesties, and the fruited plains would all be in different countries.
Scripture tells us that “Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” When we find ourselves in a lingering dilemma or an interminable personal battle: we, like the men of the 20th Maine, should cast our eyes on Him, and look for that single Word that will light our path around the enemy’s many siren calls in the wrong direction. In most cases that single word will be: Wait!
The word “wait” is better understood by knowing what it doesn’t mean. It does not mean pondering solutions and problem-solving. Waiting does not mean entertaining thoughts and images of failure that fly like hawks.
Waiting does not mean being idle – we should encourage our hearts with words of hope: “Is anything too hard for God?” “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” If we WAIT on the Lord, our futile efforts will surrender to peace and strength. In His time, when that for which we waited is ours, we shall see the battlefield from Eagles’ wings.
“But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”
Kent
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