Post Theme: Why Chivalry is Important Today
“You must pay the rent!” The dastardly villain with his thin mustache and sinister eyes holds the deadline over the maiden in distress. “You must pay the rent, and you must pay the rent today!”
In return, the maiden begs, “But I can’t pay the rent. I can’t pay the rent today.”
“But you MUST,” he demands. “You must pay the rent!”
“But I can’t! I can’t pay the rent.”
And then, just when all seems lost, the knight swoops in on his gallant steed, and declares, “I’LL pay the rent. And I’ll pay the rent today!”
Chivalry is More than a Skit
It’s a silly little skit we all played at as children, and some of us still do it as adults! But there is a measure of real life to this little scene. A hint at the finer, forgotten points of chivalry and why it is so important for us today.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to share a series of blogs on chivalry: what it is, where it comes from, what traits are at its roots. But before we can touch any of those, it’s important to grasp why chivalry is important. Many consider chivalry to be an archaic idea, something that died with medieval knights and ladies. Others see it as an affront to women. Most reserve it for the realm of dating and marriage relationships. But chivalry is much more than that.
A world without chivalry is a world in chaos. A world without those who will live by principle and stand for what is right is a world controlled by corruption, deceit, and fear. A world without the compassion of those who dare to come to the rescue is a world in despair. A world without chivalry creates a sense of impotence among those who might otherwise have been brave.
Just as our little skit implies, chivalry often involves a rescue, but it may not always involve paying the rent.
When I Discovered that Chivalry is Important
Several years ago, my family went through a major struggle. In the midst of the most difficult, darkest moments of that struggle, we found ourselves looking around for the knight (or perhaps the man wearing the bowtie, if you’re into the napkin version of this skit), but he (or she) was nowhere to be found. In my recently released (free) course, Leaving the Shadows, I share how that trial led me to a moment of deep hopelessness. I sank deeper and deeper until one day, I could go no further. I had to get alone with God and go back to my source of hope—Christ.
As I sat there in my favorite coffee shop, letting Scripture dig me out of my pit, I looked around the room and wondered how many others were facing that same hopelessness with no one to walk beside them, no one to help them through the shadows, no one to point them to the source of hope. It was then I realized the simplicity and necessity of chivalry. I realized that chivalry is stepping into someone’s falling apart moment and either helping them out, walking with them through the journey, or stepping into the fight alongside them. I realized that chivalry is simply being there.
Chivalry is Important because it strengthens weak hands and feeble knees.
Knight’s of old operated by a code. They took a vow not only to uphold that code but also to defend it. The code was more than just a set of rules or a plaque they hung on the wall and never came back to. The code—chivalry—was a way of life. Yes, it involved battles and sword fights and acts of valor, but the greater part of that code revolved around more basic rescues. Things like giving succor to widows and orphans and defending the poor and the weak. In Isaiah 35:3, God says, “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.” This was the duty of the knight, and, according to this verse, it appears to be the duty of the Christian as well.
Weak hands and feeble knees come in many forms. They might represent the family watching their child suffer from cancer. They might indicate the weary saint who has labored year after year, living not from paycheck to paycheck but from prayer to prayer. Feeble knees may belong to the mother who has given everything she has to provide for her children and still come up lacking. Weak hands may signal the father who has poured his heart out in prayer for a wayward child, done all that he knows to do to point them to Jesus, but still, he sees no change. Or they may be the despair of the lost, caught in the sludge of sin, seeking freedom but having no one to lead them to it.
Pity, sympathy, even empathy look into these situations and feel concern, sorrow even, but chivalry steps into the grime with the suffering. It bolsters by whatever means necessary, whenever possible. Some, refuse help, but chivalry remains available.
Chivalry is Important in the Fight Against Evil
I’m writing this on the anniversary 9/11. All day, my newsfeed has been full of the questions, “Do you remember? Where were you?” Those of us who lived that day will never forget. We will never forget the horror, the grief, the anguish that followed those attacks, which took so many lives. Nor will we forget the call and the uprising of men and women to go out in the fight to defeat the evil that perpetrated those acts. Soldier after soldier went into the fight, not because they randomly got up one morning and decided they wanted to go to war, but because chivalry stands against evil.
But evil exists in the smaller battles around us every day. We see it in corrupt officials who look for bribes to do their jobs. We see it in the workplace. It’s just a small discrepancy here or little fudging there, but we see it. We see it in our schools, not just with bullying but with the things being taught, the inequalities, the prejudices, the cronyism. We see it in our churches. We see it in our relationships. We see it all around us because we live in a sin-sick world. And without chivalry—no one will stand up against it.
We are to be salt and light, but that requires courage. It requires faith and compassion and host of other things that are all wrapped up in chivalry.
Chivalry is Important because it Emulates the Character of God
Is anyone in greater need of rescue than the sinner? You and I and the guy next to us, stand to be the greatest beneficiaries of the greatest act of chivalry of all time. God—the Creator of the Universe against whom we had sinned—had no need, no requirement upon Himself to rescue us. But that is Who He is. He is the defender of the fatherless and the judge of the widow. He is the God to whom the poor commit themselves. And so, at great sacrifice and pain to Himself, He redeemed us. The Lord of Hosts, literally the Lord of Armies, allowed Himself to beaten, mocked, scourged, spit upon and crucified to rescue us—to rescue me.
We, according to 1 Peter 2:21, are to follow in his steps. Over and over, God called the Israelites to courage, to be strong, to not be afraid. He calls us to the same. Not just because it helps the weak, aids in the fight against evil, or is the right thing to do—but because it reflects who He is.
My story did finally have a knight in shining armor—a whole church full of them in fact. A church that united together in love and gave a gift that allowed a struggling ministry to find a new home, take new steps, and survive. But they gave a greater gift than that. They gave the gift of chivalry, of stepping into the fight with us, pulling us up out of the mire, strengthening our weak hands and feeble knees—of being there.