Major Richard D. Winters is a former United States Army officer and decorated war veteran. He commanded Company “E”, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. His admirable service was chronicled in the 2001 HBO mini-series Band of Brothers.

In the closing segments of the series’ fifth episode, after Company “E” gets a rare weekend pass and siesta in Paris, news arrives of a massive Axis effort in the Ardennes Forest, threatening to break the Allied lines. The unparalleled confrontation to come would later become known as the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s last major offensive launched toward the end of World War II. Easy Company races in to hold the line, ill-equipped for the bitterly cold weather and the entrenched battle ahead. As the troops move into position, they pass by a retreating division of “green” America soldiers that have been shell-shocked and pummeled by the enemy.

The outgoing Lt. George Rice says to the incoming Major Winters, “Panzer division is about to cut the road south. Looks like you guys are going to be surrounded. Winters calmly, yet confidently assures Rice, “We’re paratroopers, Lieutenant. We’re supposed to be surrounded.”

As the episode ends and fades to black, a graphic tells us that Easy moved into the Bastogne woods without support from the sky or from artillery, and that they lacked food, ammunition, and winter clothes. Then this quote from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s “Currahee Scrapbook” appears on the screen: “Farthest from your mind is the thought of falling back; in fact, it isn’t there at all. And so you dig your hole carefully and deep, and wait.”

I don’t know where you find yourself right now and what circumstances surround your life. But I can tell you this: you are supposed to be surrounded (John 16:33). It’s the nature of who you are and what God has called you to do in this world. And unless you want to forfeit your dance with destiny, retreating is not an option. But you must also be reassured that he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). You were meant to overcome…

Breakthrough today!

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