Working for the Resistance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virginia Hall was an ordinary American woman whose selfless and heroic actions --below the radar-- largely altered the course of history.

In the 2019 book A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, author Sonia Purnell reveals the incredible story of a largely unknown woman who worked as an undercover agent for the United Kingdom’s special operations in Nazi-occupied France. She operated as a spy in a sphere which was an unknown and inconceivable role for a woman at that time. But more than merely gathering intelligence, Virginia was one of the key on-the-ground initiators of the French Resistance, heroically conducting espionage, sabotage, and recruiting thousands of resistance fighters in cities and hidden enclaves in the French countryside to push back against the darkness of the Nazi invaders. 

Insurmountable was not in her vocabulary.  Narrow squeaks were always around the next corner. Her strength was in her audacious spirit, her willingness to live anonymously in harsh conditions, and her ability to encourage those who were overwhelmed, discouraged, and paralyzed by fear of the dark.  And driven by her love for France.  She was certainly not enduring these experiences for her meager salary or fame.

As the first female secret agent who was repeatedly discounted and scoffed by her peers, her disadvantages actually worked to her advantage.  Indeed, described as a “woman of no importance,” ironically created opportunities for her.  Who would expect that this strikingly beautiful woman with a prosthetic leg was a serious contender of subversive activity?  Her daily choices –and personal sacrifices—started a chain reaction of monumental consequences. Living way below the radar and willing to change locations or appearances at a moment’s notice served as a grand disguise to protect her from the Nazi forces, who were determined to eliminate her.  She created intricate networks of underground resistance agents and fighters to undermine the enemy.  She rallied a huge movement of ordinary citizens who collaborated to accomplish the extraordinary, clandestinely aiding the Allies, rescuing pilots who had been shot down, hiding Jewish refugees and helping them to escape.

Through major battles and at the end of the war, French and Allied military officials claimed the glory for the survival of France, but as in most of life, it was those secret workers, the unknown people of the Resistance who turned the tide, those who worked, lived and died sacrificially under the radar to make things happen. Each individual was not just a “necessary” component, but as a vital force that directly impacted millions of lives. 

“For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” (Luke 8. 17)  Most of which we will not comprehend until the other side of life.  As in Virginia’s incredible story, there is so much of which we are unaware.

In one sense and in many dimensions, as believers, we are all secret souls that work below the radar for an eternal Kingdom with unexpected love and grace in unlikely places.  We are all strategically positioned in time and place, and divinely appointed to serve God.  Nothing is random at all, but pivots on how we respond.

Even though our actions, words and even attitudes may not appear on the surface as anything heroic, there are no small obediences, nothing that God does not use powerfully.  Am I faithful to Him?  Even in what He has placed before me?

Behind the scenes, Judy and her husband, decades ago, prepared and served the Wednesday evening meal at a small church we were a part of, week after week.  They may or may not have realized the significance of their hard behind-the-scenes work, but as a young mom with three children, three and under, they contributed enormously to my own physical and spiritual well-being.  And multiplied my understanding of grace, what faithfulness looks like in real time, and trusting God for the fruit I will never see.

At the church where I grew up, an older single woman Miss Ruth taught kindergarten Sunday School for so many years, grandchildren of her students were even instructed in God’s Word under her care.  I was never in her class, but I watched this kind and gentle saint greet the children as they came into her classroom.  She did not fill a niche, or find her “calling,” but stood in the gap for the next generation.  And as with Virginia, it was not anything but love that drove her to persevere.

When the adversary whispers, “What you are doing doesn’t matter,” we can know it always does, whether it is recognized or acknowledge or even ignored.

Because serving God is always redeemed in one way or a million.  We are all secret agents of grace.  It is not a matter of hiding, disguising, or avoiding the spotlight.  But being faithful in whatever God places on our hearts or paths.  And pushing back the darkness.  

There is nothing mundane in His Kingdom, and someday all will be revealed.   We don’t have to be acknowledged, or known, for God to get the glory. Just to be faithful to Him in the unexpected, unknown, unlikely, and even in what we may see as ordinary.  Insignificant never appears in God’s vocabulary.

There is nothing irrelevant for His eternal purposes.  Even when we are unaware of it, God is using us to make His invisible Kingdom visible.

    

So also good works are conspicuous,

and even those that are not

            cannot remain hidden.

                     1 Timothy 5. 25