Our Finest Hour

Our Finest Hour

Sir Winston Churchill is credited with saying:

“To every man there comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talent; what a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour.”

That statement motivated me to begin preparing for my ‘Battle’s of Britain’ from the moment I read and pondered it. I wanted to be ready. Each time a great opportunity has come to me I have pondered and wondered whether that ‘was the moment’ - the opportunity for my ‘finest hour’?

I have recorded many of those ‘hours’ in my history just in case that was the experience that would be my finest – or my last – and I wanted to remember and savor the feelings I felt when it happened. I found myself working very enthusiastically and energetically to make it my ‘finest hour’ – just in case it was. I know each of those occasions were bigger and better than they would have been had not that additional inner push been part of my drive for a small piece of immortality – my quest to make a permanent and long lasting difference with each new adventure.

I remember my mission to Scotland and being ‘tapped on the shoulder’ and asked to work closely with David B. Haight my mission president. I know I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life motivated by his training and vision and my desire to take both of them home with me. Those six months became the ‘finest hour’ of my mission. It gave me a taste of ‘finest hours’ and a burning desire to be a part of some more and maybe even the instigator and not just the participant in some of those ‘moments’.
President and Sister Haight in their P-Day Clothes

Those opportunities and ‘moments’ came - over the next forty years, many of them. Remembering a few will demonstrate the principle.

I remember being ‘tapped on the shoulder’ and asked to serve as a Bishop. I remember, like yesterday, sitting among the rocks on Kolob mountain above Cedar City, Utah with sixty one young men and women from the Daniel Ward during the testimony meeting of our Stake Youth Conference. Only one was not there – 98% were present and accounted for - we had labeled them the ‘biggest and the best’ and they had lived up to their name getting ready for and participating in that conference – it was truly a ‘finest hour’.

I remember the ‘tap’ to serve as the Stake President in the Simi Valley, California Stake. Nor will I ever forget sitting on the stand in the chapel of the Los Angeles Temple when 747 temple recommend holders from our stake - 97% of our potential – sustained our invitation to be with us for a special spiritual feasting experience. It was truly a ‘finest hour’.

I remember being in New York City on a ‘top floor’ of the Time and Life Building with four other ‘white shirts’, who were non smoking, non drinking, prayerful Returned Missionaries who had become business partners and were now combining their strengths and forging forward to build a giant company in the hospitality industry. The company never did threaten the Marriott’s or the Hyatt’s (or even Motel 6) but the memory of using those skills learned in Scotland in the ‘real world’ of New York burned a ‘finest hour’ memory in my journal.

I remember being in the Timpanogas Temple surrounded by all eight of our children and their spouses as our youngest prepared to serve his mission – a mission back to the ‘mother land’ of Scotland – a land of multiple Ritchie ‘finest hours’. The Ritchie’s found the gospel in Scotland - truly a ‘finest hour’. Grandfather James had been an extremely successful missionary and Scotland was also the land where I had been taught so many lessons of life and had experienced one of my ‘finest hours’. That evening in the temple was truly a momentous milestone for our family. But even a greater Ritchie family hour was to be when that same Scottish lad – four years later - would kneel with his eternal companion around the sacred temple alter, surrounded by all of his brothers, sisters and spouses and complete the sealing process of the Ritchie Clan - truly an incredible ‘hour’.

Brother Winston, with his brilliant mind but limited knowledge of man’s ultimate finest hours pointed all of us towards a goal of preparing for ‘that’ moment or opportunity when we would be ready to accept the baton and run our finest race. But, his wisdom can’t compete with the simple words sung each week by millions of our youngest children and grandchildren when they sing the words:

“Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do to live with him someday.” THAT WILL BE OUR FINEST HOUR

What a tragedy it will be if that moment finds us unprepared or unqualified for our "finest hour.”