The Courage to Continue

“Wars are not won by evacuation.” Winston Churchill spoke those words during World War II after the evacuation at Dunkirk, when British forces had barely escaped destruction. But Churchill didn’t come to that conviction only on the battlefield. He grew up with distant parents—a father who was cold and critical, and a mother he admired but rarely saw. Much of his early life was shaped instead by his nanny, who became his steady source of care and stability. He struggled in school, often near the bottom of his class, battled illness, failed military entrance on early attempts, and had to fight for his place in nearly every area of life. Yet over time, something formed in him: a resilience that didn’t come from ease, but from adversity. By the time he spoke to a nation at war, he was speaking as someone who had learned, over many years, how to keep going when quitting would have been easier.

In my own life and in the life of our school here in Albuquerque, I am reminded that most meaningful things are not hardest at the beginning—they are hardest in the middle. It’s when progress feels slow, when answers don’t come quickly, when families and students are carrying real challenges, that discouragement can quietly settle in. I feel that weight at times too. But that middle space is also where faithfulness matters most.

This is not the time for Christian families, churches, or schools to pull back from the work of shaping young people with truth, character, and faith. It is demanding work, but it is worthy work.
So much of what matters most is built by people who stay when it would be easier to leave. The answer to difficulty is not evacuation. It is faithfulness—choosing to stay engaged, stay committed, and keep building even when it would be easier not to.