By David Van Cleve

I have been crying a lot lately. Mostly when I think of the hardships being inflicted upon, and being endured by, the people of Ukraine. But even more so because of all the images of their response to these hardships. Grit, courage, optimism in the face of long odds, unity in a common goal, a 7 year-old girl singing in a bunker. These all apply.  

I am reminded of the American Revolution, when farmers, clerks, candlemakers – ordinary citizens – stood against vastly superior armed forces. How do they have the courage to do that, and what would I do, given similar circumstances?  The answer to the second question is simple – I don’t know, and you don’t know how you would react either. Let me explain. 

One of my favorite books of all time is by Viktor Frankl – “Man’s Search for Meaning.”  Quite the unambitious title, right? Frankl was a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust, and went on to become a brilliant psychiatrist and psychotherapist.  

Frankl lost both his parents and his brother in the concentration camps. He made a point of observing how survivors of those camps effected that survival. What behaviors and perspectives allowed them to make it out alive? 

One behavior was imagination—the ability to imagine being in a different and better situation. If you were in the yard breaking big rocks into small rocks, in your mind you were in a garden surrounded by loved ones. This ability to hang on to the last of human freedoms. The ability to choose your attitude in any given circumstance was the key. Eventually, you would be in a better place. As Frankl put it,

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” 

Another behavior that contributed to survival was one’s sense of community. No matter how awful your situation, you shared with others. Frankl’s example was the starving prisoner who found a slice of bread. Rather than eat it immediately, the founder took it back to their camp and shared it with other starving prisoners.  

Now contrast this to Langdon Gilkey’s “Shantung Compound,” a memoir of his time in a Japanese prisoner camp during World War II. Gilkey, a theologian teaching in China at the time, along with a broad cross-section of British and American citizens, was sent to a prison camp in China run by the Japanese. Gilkey’s memoir is a portrayal of moral dilemmas and selfish behaviors on the part of the prisoners, including some Christian missionaries. In a situation of scarcity, many prisoners felt they were entitled to better conditions than the rest.  When the Red Cross relief boxes arrived… let’s just say it was not a pretty sight. 

But who am I to judge? Would I have shared or hoarded? If I were a 72 year-old Ukrainian, would I join the resistance (we seniors can be pretty deceptive, you know) or head west with family to safety? As a first responder for much of my career, I was never faced with a situation where I was called upon to risk my life in order to save another’s. I always wondered what that calculus would feel like. I would like to think that I would share, that I would give my life for others, that I would defend my country against the Evil Empire.  I can only ask God to give me the strength to do the right thing. 

This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. (John 15:13, The Message)