October 7 | Moments Almanac | Elizabethton
On October 7, 1780, the Battle of Kings Mountain became a turning point in the American Revolution. Just days earlier, the Overmountain Men had gathered at Sycamore Shoals, where Presbyterian minister Samuel Doak prayed over them before they crossed the mountains to confront British Major Patrick Ferguson. Ferguson had reportedly boasted that even God Almighty could not drive him from his position. But on Kings Mountain, Patriot militia surrounded his forces, Ferguson was killed, and the Loyalists were defeated.
Across the Atlantic, another kind of determination was nearing the end of its journey. Late in his life, John Wesley was refused permission to preach inside the parish church at Winchelsea. So the aging Methodist preacher simply went outside and preached beneath an ash tree. It would become his final outdoor sermon.
A battlefield in South Carolina. An ash tree in England. Two very different stories that remind us of the importance of perseverance.
Sometimes the mountain stands in your way. Sometimes the door is simply locked.
Either way, don’t surrender before the finish.
Join us for this October 7 edition of Moments Almanac.
Welcome to Moments Almanac for October 7th. There are moments when you discover whether you really intend to finish what you started. In the fall of 1780, a band of frontier fighters known as the Over Mountain Men gathered at Sycamore Shoals near present-day Elizabethton, Tennessee. Before they crossed the mountains, the Reverend Samuel Doak preached to them and prayed over them. Their destination was King's Mountain. The British commander, Major Patrick Ferguson, was confident in his position. According to accounts that followed, Ferguson boasted that not even God Almighty could drive him from that mountain. On october seventh, seventeen eighty, the Patriots arrived, and they did not surrender. The battle lasted over an hour. Ferguson was killed, his forces were defeated, and King's Mountain became one of the pivotal patriot victories of the American Revolution. But there's another kind of determination I'm thinking about today. Not on a battlefield, under a tree. John Wesley was an old man when the rector at Winchelsia refused to allow him to preach inside the parish church. Wesley could have shrugged his shoulders and gone home. After all, he had preached thousands upon thousands of sermons. He had traveled countless miles on horseback. He had spent a lifetime proclaiming the gospel. Surely he had done enough. Instead, Wesley simply went outside, under an ash tree on German Street. The elderly preacher stood before the people and preached Christ. He later wrote that it seemed as though nearly everyone who heard him was almost persuaded to become Christians. It would be Wesley's final outdoor sermon. He died the following March at the age of eighty-seven. Two different scenes a mountain in South Carolina, an ash tree in England. But perhaps there is a common word for us in both stories. Don't surrender before the finish. There will always be mountains that look impossible. There will always be doors that refuse to open. Sometimes faithfulness means climbing the mountain anyway. And sometimes it means finding an ash tree and preaching underneath it. Because finishing well doesn't mean the road was easy. It means you kept going until there was no road left to travel. And that's Moments Almanac for October 7th. I hope you'll join me tomorrow. Until then, take heart. Notice the scattered moments, and share the grace.
