Right to the edge of hope

Part of the 31 Days of Scary Hope series. We’re looking at stories that encourage us to go from IS to COULD BE.

This story is about shoe sales, decorating on a budget, and fudge without calories.

Psyche! Just kidding! I said that because I know it’s all girls reading and I don’t want you to stop when you find out what it’s really about.

Because this is actually a story with references to war and armies and generals. Ha!

Seriously, it is. You don’t put that in bold, do you?

But it’s not really about any of that.

This story is about how close you can get to losing hope, and how it can so go the other way.

George C. Marshall is not a household name today. Sixty years ago, he was. But, almost not.

Marshall was a career soldier, a great organizer, gifted in identifying and inspiring leaders.

He wanted to be Chief of Staff; top guy in the Army and advisor to the President. Guys can be ambitious like that. When you’re good at something and you’ve done it for thirty-six years, you want to go as far as you can go.

But, Marshall was getting too old.

He needed to be Chief of Staff by his sixtieth birthday. You had to be able to serve four years as Chief before retirement. When the current Chief was leaving, five guys were ahead of Marshall in the seniority line. However, the President could pick whoever he wanted. The candidates campaigned for the job through friends, insiders, and the newspapers.

Daring your hope to come true

Marshall would not campaign. He stopped people who tried to intercede for him. He turned down a high profile speech opportunity because he thought it might look like he was using it to get the job. He said he got where he was by “attending to business” and by letting that speak for him, and he wasn’t going to change.

During one meeting with the President unrelated to the Chief of Staff issue, Marshall was the only one to disagree with the President. At the end of the session, the others consoled him over having blown his chances for advancement.

He’s months from the end of his last chance at fulfilling his hope, and he won’t stop being who he is, even at the risk of losing his hope.

That’s scary.

President Roosevelt picked him.

The rest really is history.

In three years Marshall built the army up from pathetic to the greatest war machine in history. Americans owe him.

The President wouldn’t let him lead the D-Day invasion because he was too valuable in Washington. Eisenhower, serving under Marshall, led it and became President.

In the next eleven years Marshall served as Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was Time magazine’s Man of the Year.

If everybody had known all that, they would have picked him for Chief of Staff sooner. But they didn’t know.

You never know

It was all a few months away from looking very different for him.

Comments

[Abbie Knaub]

"he won’t stop being who he is, even at the risk of losing his hope"

I've been thinking a lot about being real to myself and those around me - even at the expense of mt "good girl" reputation. Bet you know where I got that. :)

[Lisa]

Dang! You had me going with that opening line! :) An interesting tidbit of history I'll remember when we (with the kids) study US History this year.

I also appreciated your testimony—raw, honest and powerful. Looking forward to 25 more days of great posts! Thank you for sharing.

[Dixie Redmond]

And the interesting thing, he had the same character before and after. It was the circumstances that changed, not him.

[Cindy]

Wow! I'm enjoying reading your blog - and I'm not a blog reader to start off with.
I got the link to your 31 Days of Scary Hope from a friend and will add, I'll be reading the rest of this to the end.

Thanks for sharing!!

[remote control helicopter reivews]

Swich to wordpress, make your blogger nicer. -My 2 cents