One More

The Battle of Okinawa was among the bloodiest engagements of World War II. When the soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division finally retreated from Hacksaw Ridge under withering enemy fire, one man stayed behind — Private Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist who had refused to carry a rifle on religious grounds.

His fellow soldiers had mocked him, hazed him, tried to have him discharged. But in Hacksaw Ridge, director Mel Gibson captures what happened next with almost unbearable clarity. Alone on that blood-soaked escarpment, under Japanese fire in the darkness, Doss dragged wounded man after wounded man to the cliff's edge and lowered them down on a rope — seventy-five men rescued through a single night. His prayer was desperate and repetitive: "Lord, please help me get one more."

He wasn't fearless. He was terrified. But he kept moving.

That is the texture of biblical courage. When Joshua stood at the edge of the Jordan River, God did not tell him to stop being afraid. He said, "Be strong and courageous" — implying fear would be present, that courage would be required precisely because the path was dangerous (Joshua 1:9).