For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7

Some background, for those not familiar with the Kokoda Track, or the Kokoda campaign of WW 2:

The Kokoda Track is a foot track that runs roughly southwest from Kokoda 96 kilometres (60 mi) overland (60 kilometres (37 mi) in a straight line) through the Owen Stanley Range towards Port Moresby in Papua. It was known before the war and had been used as an overland mail route.

The Kokoda Track campaign or Kokoda Trail campaign was part of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign consisted of a series of battles fought between July and November 1942 in what was then the Australian Territory of Papua. It was primarily a land battle, between the Japanese South Seas Detachment under Major General Tomitarō Horii and Australian and Papuan land forces under command of New Guinea Force. The Japanese objective was to seize Port Moresby by an overland advance from the north coast, following the Kokoda Track over the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range, as part of a strategy to isolate Australia from the United States.

From the accounts of those who returned from the campaign, we learned that it was brutal, the soldiers severely impacted by tropical diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, scrub typhus, tropical ulcers, dysentery from a range of causes and fungal infections.

They suffered from enteric infections due to poor field hygiene, contaminated and unpurified water, and a failure to make adequate sanitary provisions along the track during the early part of the campaign. A proportion of diarrhoeal disturbances were attributable to the poor diet (particularly the high-fat content of tinned beef) rather than infection.

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoda_Track_campaign

Yet, in the midst of their own suffering, the native Paua New Guinean carriers served their masters, at great cost to themselves and their families, as women and children left behind suffered great hardship and food shortages on account of the men being away from home for great lengths of time.

“In retrospect the Papuans had little reason to be loyal to their Australian colonial masters, who often treated them as second-class citizens in their own country. Nonetheless many worked until they dropped. It is said that no living soldier was ever abandoned by the carriers, not even during heavy combat. Their compassion for the wounded and sick earned them the eternal gratitude of the Australian soldiers, who called them ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’”.

Source: http://kokodahistorical.com.au/history/fuzzy-wuzzy-angel

Now that the background has been filled in some, let me get to the reason I am sitting in front of my keyboard on a very hot summer day in Western Australia.

During a time of worship the Lord reminded me of my husband and I embarking on our own campaign to get fit and healthy, hoping to shed a few kilograms in the process. 

We were blessed to live at the bottom of King’s Park and Botanic Garden, one of the world’s largest and most beautiful inner-city parks, here in Perth, western Australia. Our walking route would take us up a steep, uneven, rock hewn staircase, named the Kokoda Memorial steps, through King’s Park and down Jacob’s ladder (a metal staircase), a 43-metre descent, just short of 300 hundred steps. 

One Saturday morning, shortly after we started our new fitness regime, we were huffing and puffing our way up the Kokoda steps, feeling a bit defeated, and a lot more humiliated, as people were running laps up and down the steep and treacherous steps.  We stopped to rest, probably trying to look inconspicuous when a sprightly, fit, elderly gentleman briskly climbed past us. Whilst doing so, he gave Fred a hearty pat on the back and said “Courage!”.

We looked at each other, laughed out loud and started to climb again.  One word of encouragement caused us to gain our momentum back.  We were still tired, still breathing hard, still in pain from various screaming muscles but we were moving again.  I never took my eyes off the man.  I ignored the fit runners, I ignored the scenery…I kept my eyes on his feet and I worked hard to match him step for step. Before I knew it, we arrived at the top step, and we could look down and celebrate the small victory.

We kept at it, and little by little we got lighter, and fitter and before we knew it we were racing each other up those steps.  It still hurt, but we had increased our endurance and we had learned to ignore our aching muscles.  We were able to descend Jacob’s ladder twice as fast and it felt great.

What’s the point, you might wonder.  In some way we are all climbing the Kokoda steps…it’s just how it is.  The apostle Paul speaks of us all running our race and tells us that we are to run for the first prize, for the winner’s crown.  However, many of us are carrying heavy burdens, we are weighed down by worries and cares, by yokes the enemy placed on us as children, we are suffering from infected wounds, and we are bleeding and weak.  Some of us are just fat and lazy from complacency, from feeding our flesh once too often, from a lack of exercising our spiritual muscles and a lack of self-control.

Regardless of this, the Lord walks by us, as we are struggling our way upwards, and He says to us “Courage!” before He marches on, and in our brokenness and pain, we feel abandoned, left behind, unloved, and unprotected.  But the truth is, He has not abandoned us, He has gone before, leading us, making a way for us!  The way to victory on this part of the track, is to forget everything that will try to distract us, we stop comparing ourselves to the other people in the race and we fix our eyes on His feet.  We match His steps, step for step, and before you know it, He had led us to the mountain top.   Victory!

After the climb, the walk through King’s Park is a breeze…flat, even and beautiful.  The gardens are cool and glorious, with water fountains, manicured lawns…a real oasis.  It speaks to me of those seasons where we are acutely aware of the Lord’s nearness, His presence refreshing and when the living’s easy.  After a battle, when breakthrough is won, there’s always a season of wellbeing, tranquillity and peace and it’s our reward for not giving in, not giving up and for following close behind Him.

Then comes the descent down Jacob’s ladder.  No great battle is ever just for our own benefit.  Yes, it hones our skills, it deals with our stuff, it cleanses and strengthens us, but it’s also for the benefit of those who need to learn from us.  We learn the lesson, we get the freedom, we overcome and then we share the testimony that will set others free.

The Word says, in Revelation 12:11:  They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.

The descent speaks to me of the seasons where we bring “down” that which we learned on the way up, and during the time we walked through the garden with Him.  What a privilege we have to share the testimony of what the Lord has done and see how He uses that which cost us much to bless someone else greatly!

And then we find ourselves at the foot of the Kokoda steps again…  Sometimes we need to feel the hand of the Father on our shoulder, His voice speaking courage to us as we peel sweat off another burden, and sometimes we are the hand of God, used by Him to encourage someone else, to help them through a spot we already negotiated successfully.

So today, I want to be the voice of encouragement to you, regardless of where you are on the journey.  In the words of Aslan to Lucy, I say to you “Courage, dear Heart.”