WHENEVER I feel I need a boost in confidence or feel slightly down due to some unexpected hitches along the journey of life, one of my remedies is to reach out for that book on Winston Churchill's Greatest Speeches.
I have lost count of the times when I read the speeches again and feel that andrenaline rush through my body and mind. Minutes later, I will feel the optimism and confidence cruising through my veins again.
This is the effect that the words of Churchil have on me. Just imagine the effect it had on the English people during those difficult and troubled years of World War II when German planes flew night after night and blasted parts of England into oblivion.
But it was always Winston Churchill who urged most passionately to his people to hold on, hang on and fight on. If there was ever a time and a man who had a destiny to fulfil, it would have been Churchill.
He himself felt he was born for one reason, and that was to lend a hand to his country and her people when the need was most dire.
Hitler was pounding on an almost hapless England and there was no more place to run. Then a familiar voice came booming over the BBC, urging the English people never to give up, never to give in and to fight on the beaches, the fields, the streets, and NEVER SURRENDER.
The English people took his exhortations to heart and before long, and after the Battle of Britain, Churchill was compelled to say: "Never in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many to so few."
Churchill was referring to the British pilots who won a hard fought air battle with the Nazi planes which came to destroy England. In the final outcome, the German air force was given such a fearsome beating that the Nazi generals called off their air attacks against England.
England had had experienced many difficult moments in her illustrious history but the Second World War would surely rank among the top five and almost brough the nation to her knees.
However, God had provided a "lion" to strengthen the resolve of the frightened English people when the hour seemed most dark, and he was none other than Winston Churchill from the House of Malborough.
Churchill's words have echoed through the pages of the English history and continue to do so. We who live so far away from the white cliffs of Dover have often heard Churchill's fighting speeches through books, CDs, and magazines.
After more than half a century, the speeches of Churchill continue to inspire, persuade and convince many of us that in our lives, there are times when the going becomes utterly difficult but like everything worth fighting for, they are worth every minute of our life and our limited energy.
In the dark hours of the Second World War, Churchill stood alone and unafraid, facing a formidable enemy and so solution in sight. Despite those overwhelming odds, Winston Churchill, a child of the 19th century, carried out stoically against great odds, never giving up, never giving in and always pushing forward.
In the end, his patience and persistence became the crucial keys to a new future for England the the English.
Churchill's speeches are as relevant today as they were during the last great war. Today, as the world teeters on the brink of an economic precipice, we are reminded by a man who has departed in 1965 to carry on, push on and NEVER TO GIVE UP.
For that, we must all be reminded again and again and be grateful.
