June 18 in France commemorates “l’Appel du 18 juin,” the radio address to the French people by General Charles de Gaulle, on June 18, 1940. For Anglicans, it is the remembrance of the martyrdom of Bernard Mazeki.

De Gaulle was then a minor member of the government, and an army officer shunned for his views on mechanized warfare—views confirmed by the German onslaught whose armored divisions sliced through the French Army, causing 300,000 casualties in two months. On June 17, the government was placed in the hands of Marshal Philippe Pétain, hero of the battle of Verdun in the First World War, and he sued for peace.

“Has hope been extinguished?” de Gaulle asked. “No!” And there he took his stand. Obstinate, single-minded, de Gaulle eventually inspired the French to resist at home and form a new army in their colonies. If there is a France today, it is because of one man taking a stand.

Bernard Mizeki also took his stand. Born in Mozambique, he converted to Christianity and became a lay missionary in what was then southern Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe). He and his fellow missionaries came under fire during a rebellion in 1896, and became the target of native witch doctors. He refused to leave his post, and was murdered on June 18, 1896. Mizeki took a stand.

Thanks to that witness (martyr, in Greek), Christianity made huge advances. Mizeki is remembered also for his ability to proclaim the Gospel in terms of the local Shona culture, despite the conviction current at the time that European culture had to be introduced along with the Gospel. Again, Mizeki’s stand was crucial to opening a more faithful evangelism and catechizing.

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to take a stand. “Here I stand, I can do no other,” Martin Luther famously declared to those who opposed his theological convictions.

When life forces a choice between your most deeply-held convictions and abandoning them, take a stand. Be who you are, if you can do no other without denying that you are the person you desire to be. Hope is never extinguished. Even death is not the end. “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”