The Music of Adversity

My mother, before she took on the role of Mom, was preparing to be a nun in the convent. While she left before taking her final vows, her devotion to God never wavered.
When the movie, “The Sound of Music” came out in the mid-1960s, she resonated with it from head to toe. I think she dragged us, kids, to see it about seven times in less than two weeks. This included packing the family station wagon and going to the local drive-In.
Seeing the film wasn’t enough for Mom as she proceeded to line us all up when we got home and made us sing, “Do-Re-Mi.” You guessed it; I was “Do a Deer.”
Then you know just a little of the real-life story of the Trapp Family Singers. It all comes back to me every time “The Sound of Music” repeats on television.
Many of you know that this Julie Andrews classic musical was based upon a real story, not about the Sheptocks but the Trapp Family. The patriarch of this Austrian singing family was Georg Ritter von Trapp (1880–1947), a decorated submarine captain during World War I.
When von Trapp lost his wife Agathe to a scarlet fever epidemic in 1922, he became the sole parent of seven children. After one of his daughters came down with the fever, he hired “How do you solve a problem like Maria” Kutscher, a convent novitiate, as the child’s nurse. I can hear her sing, “I’ve Got Confidence” even as I write this.
Maria would stay on as the children’s governess and eventually married Ritter von Trapp. The Trapps’ home was always filled with music, and the children learned to sing and harmonize.
The Trapp Family performed in concert halls and festivals, becoming famous all over Europe.
During the 1930s, Ritter von Trapp watched the rise of Nazism with sober alarm. When the Trapps were invited to sing for Adolph Hitler’s birthday celebration, von Trapp refused.
In 1938, the Nazi government pressured him to accept a new commission as a submarine commander, and Ritter von Trapp decided it was time to escape. He had his family dress for a short walk in the woods.
Accompanied by the family priest, they never looked back. They all hiked across the Austrian Alps to a tiny Italian village. From there, they took a train down the Italian coast and booked passage to New York.
When they arrived in America, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs and $3.50 in cash. They performed their music around the country and soon rebuilt their fortunes.
In 1942, the Trapp Family bought a 600-acre farm near Stowe, Vt, and remodeled the farmhouse as an Austrian chalet. The Trapps continued to tour even after Georg Ritter von Trapp passed away in 1947.
Later, Maria and the Trapp children turned their chalet into the world-famous Trapp Family Lodge. Guests could ski and hike in the daytime, then be treated to a Trapp Family concert in the evening. “So Long, Farewell”… and so on.
Tragically, on Dec. 20, 1980, the family lodge burned to the ground. Maria and the children were devastated. They had endured so many trials and tribulations during their days, and now there was yet one more mountain to climb.
The lodge was gone. In their discouragement, they questioned whether they should rebuild.
As Providence designed it, the day after the fire, a package arrived for the Trapp Family. A friend had sent it several days before. When the Trapps unwrapped the package, they found it was a gift for the lodge, a large rug bearing a Latin inscription: “Nec Aspera Terrent” (Do not be terrified by adversity).
Encouraged by the gift, it breathed new life into the troops that the Trapps immediately decided to begin rebuilding. Today, a new and more beautiful Trapp Family Lodge stands on the site of the old lodge.
When one enters the lobby, the first thing they will notice is a large rug with a Latin inscription, reminding you not to be terrified by adversity.
“Do Not Be Terrified By Adversity.”
This has been one of the great lessons we have been learning in the Book of Job as I have preached through these treasured Scriptures at The Lighthouse Church.
Adversity doesn’t mean the absence of God’s presence in your life. Adversity doesn’t mean that the Lord is punishing you or withholding his love.
Adversity is just one more aspect of every individual’s adventure. Adversity doesn’t mean defeat. Adversity could very well be the launch to a depth in your life that could not be developed any other way through any other means.
God will use adversity if you choose to look up rather than give up. The only way to avoid adversity is to check out rather than show up. What music is flowing from your story because you refused to allow any enemy force to steal your song?
One of my favorite songs from “The Sound of Music” is “Climb Every Mountain.”
Mother Superior sings it to Maria when she seeks to escape life rather than live it to the fullest. The lyrics include these inspirational words. “A dream that will need all the love you can give. Every day of your life
for as long as you live.”
Do not be terrified by adversity. Expect it and use it to grow up in your faith. If you are willing to go the distance, you too will add walking with Jesus as one of your favorite things! It surely is for me.
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.