Courage is often portrayed in the culture as a one-time event or a particular profession, but it also takes courage to make decisions with the ordinary challenges we face in our everyday lives. Often times we make choices so quickly we don’t even realize their impact on others. We go with the flow instead of making decisions that are courageous. While we need spiritual and moral courage we also need…
Relational courage.
It takes courage to develop meaningful relationships, to self-disclose to be vulnerable and honest. It takes courage to not blame someone else for our stuff or to not self-justify our own actions when we have hurt others. It takes courage to recognize and do something about the blind spots we all have.
It takes courage to talk about issues that need to be resolved rather than run from them. It takes courage to raise kids. It takes courage in a relationship to fight off the greener-grass mentality. We’ll never really enjoy life to the fullest without courage.
We all need and want courage, but how do we get it?
I don’t know if there is an exact answer, but it does have to do with facing our fears. Someone else said courage is not the absence of fear, its fear that has said its prayers.
I like what the former Editor of Parade Magazine, Walter Anderson said in his book, ‘Courage is a Three-Letter Word.’
“Real courage is saying ‘yes’ to life instead of backing down when we face adversity. Courage is acting with fear, not without it. Of all the successful people I’ve known and wrote about in the book it’s not just that they learned to live with anxiety or to cope with anxiety, they’ve learned to live better because of it.”
Fear can paralyze us, yet if we want to diffuse our fear and grow in courage we need to inevitably face our fears. So, what fear paralyzes you? Is it your family, workplace or personal? If we want to grow in courage we need to increase our exposure to courageous people. Many biblical characters made courageous choices despite their fear. Being courageous is not just for a few, it’s for you and me.
Courage impacts all of us one way or the other. It took courage for the U.S. 101st Airborne to endure the Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest battles of WWII. There’s a memorial to them which reads,
“Seldom has so much blood been shed in a single course of action. Oh Lord, help us to remember.” Certainly, a fitting and deserved tribute to the courageous soldiers who gave their lives.
The act of ultimate courage.
It took courage for Jesus to go to the cross for you. The writer of Hebrews wrote about Jesus’ night of extreme anxiety in the garden of Gethsemane.
“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (Hebrews 5:7)
He could have walked away and saved himself, but chose to be courageous because he was thinking of YOU! “…who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
There has never been such a courageous act of love for you and me. Lord, help us to remember what your courage did for us! We owe You our lives!
