Love Bravely

Diptheria, Jeroboam's downfall, and an indomitable will.  This week we learn to be brave.

This episode is the eighth installment in a ten-part series on learning to love with all our heart, part of a broader goal this year to study the greatest commandments – to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  In every account of the gospels, the command to love always begins with the heart… and if you are going to make a difference in this world, it is going to take some heart to make that happen.

"Remember, you are loved, so go, love better!"

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Transcript

North of the zoo, near the intersection of East Drive and 76th, along the pathways of New York City’s famed Central Park there stands a small bronze statue of a dog.  The statue was created by Frederick Roth and was modeled after a malamute named Chinook.  The bronze shines at places where passersby have rubbed their hands and children often climb and ride on the back of the forever steady bronze pup.  It has become a quiet fixture since 1925 when it was installed in Central Park, and beloved by many a New Yorker and tourist alike.  At the base of the statue it simply reads…

Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925.

Chinook, the model for the statue, may have been a malamute, but the sculpture was primarily created to commemorate a kindred breed - Siberian huskies and their efforts to save hundreds of lives in the remote village of Nome, Alaska.  Siberian huskies, the tiny dogs with gigantic hearts, that saved a city on the brink of an epidemic.  
 
 

I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.

This episode is the eighth installment in a ten-part series on learning to love with all our heart, part of a broader goal this year to study the greatest commandments – to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  In every account of the gospels, the command to love always begins with the heart… and if you are going to make a difference in this world, it is going to take some heart to make that happen.

The sled dog relay to Nome would later be dubbed the Great Race of Mercy, but at the time it was simply a call for help.  A few cases of diptheria had been diagnosed in Nome, an isolated town on the west coast of Alaska, and the writing was on the wall – this would become an outbreak in no time, and their supplies of diptheria antitoxins had expired… oh, and by the way, it’s January… in Alaska.

In response to the crisis, a plan was devised to transport fresh diphtheria antitoxin from Anchorage to Nome, a distance of nearly 1,000 miles. Because the harsh winter weather made air travel unreliable, the decision was made to relay the antitoxin via a series of dog sled teams. The effort involved mushers and their sled dogs navigating jagged iced and enduring extreme cold temperatures to deliver the life-saving serum.  20 mushers and over 100 sled dogs were involved in the relay.  Mushers traveled through harsh winter conditions, including blizzards, extreme cold, and treacherous terrain, to ensure the prompt delivery of the life-saving antitoxin to the isolated town of Nome. Each leg of the relay was critical to the success of the mission, and the combined efforts of all the mushers and their sled dogs ultimately saved many lives and prevented a diphtheria epidemic in Nome.

And the dogs that took the longest leg and the hardest leg were all Siberian huskies, led by Gunnar Kah-sen and Leonhard Seppala.  Seppala’s leg of the relay was the longest, about 260 miles.  This segment was necessary because the previous relay teams had been unable to cover the entire distance due to severe weather conditions.  Though short, arguably the hardest stretch was Gunnar Kah-sen’s, 53 miles of grueling terrain, negative forty degree Fahrenheit weather, blizzard conditions with near zero visibility, and topography that included steep inclines, narrow passages, and wicked dropoffs… and by the time the serum reached the final leg of the relay – a time pressure because the diptheria was beginning to spread throughout the community. 

         Leonhard Seppala and Gunnar Kah-sen knew what the rest of the world would eventually find out – Siberian huskies are amazing sled dogs, and capable of exceptional endurance and fidelity in the face of adversity.  Siberians had shown up on the sled dog season less than twenty years previous to the Serum Run to Nome, and when they had, most mushers referred to them as “Siberian rats” because they were so small in comparison to the current breeding patterns for sled dogs.  With male huskies weighing in around fifty pounds, they seemed scrawny in comparison to the burlier Arctic breeds like the Malamute and the Greenland dog.  Siberians looked miniature next to these big dogs bred to pull heavy loads.

         And so, when in February 1925, these blue-eyed, arctic wonders from Siberia delivered the goods to save the people of Nome… they captured the hearts of America from sea to shining sea and from Anchorage to Central Park.  The tiny dogs that braved the worst Alaska could offer and never quit.  The Siberian with a stubborn will to keep going when all the odds were against them.

         We find stories like these inspiring because it reminds us that more than size, heart matters.  Maybe you should let the big dog eat, but don’t count out the plucky underdog either.

         As we aspire to love God and our neighbor with all our heart, we need to remember what heart can do.  The heart is the seat of our emotions and passions, which means it is also the foundation to other things like courage, resolve, and determination.

         In Psalm 31:24 it says, “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.”  The verse doesn’t say, ‘take mind’, ‘take soul’, or ‘take strength’ – it says take heart.  The heart is the place where courage is found and it is also the place where courage is lost.

         It was David’s heart that set him apart from his siblings as one who God would refer to as “a man after My own heart” in 1 Samuel 13:14.  When mighty and terrible Goliath taunted the nation of Israel, it was David’s heart that was filled with courage while all other men’s hearts melted.

         On the other hand, one of the greatest betrayals of God began with the heart of a man named Jeroboam.  Jeroboam had been crowned king of Israel, given ten tribes to lead and guide, and promised by God that those ten tribes would faithfully following him and future generations of kings from his lineage if he remained true to God and His Word.

         But, Jeroboam, like many who have power, comfort, and position was afraid of losing what he had been given.  He feared the ten tribes returning to Jerusalem, rejoining the two southern tribes, and eventually killing him.  All of these fears were contrary to the evidence, they were completely unfounded.  All the evidence pointed toward God’s blessings upon his household and a bright and prosperous future for his kingdom… so where did these irrational fears come from?  The Bible says simply in 1 Kings 12:26 that Jeroboam said them in his heart.

         That fear led him to create two golden calves, an entire false religion, and ironically, his fears became the foundation of his downfall.  His fears, spoken into his own heart, became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

         With David courage led him to take heart and then he took five stones, a sling, and won an enduring victory over Goliath.  For crying out loud, we call all victories of the little guy over the big guy a “David and Goliath” story.  

In contrast, mighty king Jeroboam with all signs pointing to victory and prosperity, spoke fear into his own heart until it melted.  His fearful heart led him right into temptation and rebellion against God.  He devised idols because his fear made room for them.

We see this pattern in every facet of the world and culture.  Small companies with scrappy determination becoming the next Microsoft or Apple after starting in their parent’s garage.  No name athletes springing from the ranks of the undrafted to lead their teams to victory in the big moment… or the indomitable will of a small, sinewy and underappreciated Siberian husky cutting across the backdrop of a frozen landscape to save the day.  It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

The message appeals to us, too. We like a good underdog because, at some point, and in some area, we all have felt like underdogs.  It is good to know that we have a choice – to fight or to flee – and that our life is not set in stone by external forces.

The technical term for the belief that your life is totally controlled by external forces is determinism… and there are heaps of evidence in this world to discourage someone into believing their life is predetermined.  We cannot deny that where you are born, your genetics, your socio-economic status, your upbringing, the rolemodels (or lack thereof) in your life, and even the level of technology you have access to can make a profound impact upon who you grow up to be.

By and large we see that people raised with advantages tend to remain advantaged, and those who start life with disadvantages remain disadvantaged… except there are exceptions.  There are David’s who rise from nothing and there are Jeroboam’s who fall from glory.

Jesus pointed this out to the cities of Galilee He preached and performed signs and wonders in.  His own hometown, Nazareth, refused to listen to Him… while the pagans of Tyre and Sidon begged for His attention.   In Matthew 11, Jesus would denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done because they did not repent.  They had heard and seen and witnessed the miracles of Jesus – what more of an advantage could you ask for?  Yet, their hearts were not with Him.

In comparison, Jesus will point out in Matthew 12 that many people who had much less going for them made better and braver choices.  The city of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah (even though Jonah wasn’t a particularly great preacher) and the Queen of Sheba traveled great distances to hear Solomon (though Solomon’s wisdom is nothing in comparison to Jesus’).  For every example of someone making the wrong choice, we can find examples of people making the right choices under more difficult circumstances.

Which brings us back to David and Jeroboam.  Your heart determines your direction, and courage and resolve are a choice.  There is a reason that Paul told Timothy, “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” and also said that the way he lived his life was with “eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.” (Philippians 1:20)

Courage comes from telling your heart the truth and reminded yourself that you can choose how you behave, even if you can’t control the final outcome.  David didn’t know what would happen with Goliath, but he knew someone had to stand up to the bully in the schoolyard.  Paul didn’t know whether he would live or die, but he knew that he wanted to live a life that left a legacy of honoring Jesus either way.

And that’s the thing about being brave – brave hearts leave legacies.  David is the originally David and Goliath victory and he is forever remembered as the brave underdog.  Paul eventually did die for Jesus, but his letters live a legacy of faith that all Christians enjoy and find strength from.

And the dogs of the Great Race of Mercy left a legacy, too.  Gunnar Kah-sen’s lead dog Balto has been immortalized in multiple books, three animated films from Universal Pictures: Balto, Balto 2: Wolf Quest, and Balto 3: Wings of Change and that statue in Central Park modeled after the malamute named Chinook – the statue is called “Balto”.  One brave dog with so much publicity.

But Balto is nothing compared to the legacy Leonhard Seppala’s lead dog, Togo and the rest of his team.  After delivering the antitoxins, the fame of Siberian huskies spread rapidly, so much so that very quickly became an in-demand breed… so Seppala took his dogs to Poland Springs, Maine where they lived out the rest of their happy doggie lives as parents to a burgeoning breeding program.  Today, almost every Siberian Husky you see – from the silverscreen to your neighbor in the next cul-de-sac over is a descendant of Togo and the Seppala sled dog team.  Bravery gave them an ancestral legacy that has defined the breed for 100 years.

Your life is not determined for you.  You have a choice, and your heart has a voice.  You can change your future, regardless of what your past is like.  That’s a sobering thought and one worth taking courage in, too.   Everyone gets to decide who they are going to be, and God, who is the heart knower loves to see you speak courage in your heart and choose to stand for something.  Don’t let Christianity be your private faith – He died publicly for more than just you.  Don’t hide from moral issues in the public square – while Hitler took over Germany, the average German church resolved to just “sing a little louder” instead of speak against the evil in their own backyard – and no, I’m not talking politics here – I’m talking about speaking to your neighbor and the people you actually have influence with, not the black hole of social media where the voices are loud and the bravery isn’t required.  I fear at times that my quiet on issues of right and wrong with my neighbors is complicit in a worldview that is trying to remove God from conversation.  I don’t need a larger platform.  I need a braver heart.  

And find a corner of the world to make better and take some risks to do that.  Learning to love better requires the courage to find an injustice in this world and change it.  Brave hearts lead bold lives.  Make a difference because you choose to run the race nobody else wanted to and face the blizzards that keep you from seeing the victory at the beginning.

Learn to love better – learn to take heart.

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And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”