On Courage
Courage is the key that unlocks the door to the life of God’s dreams.
Courage is the missing component in the life of God’s dreams. Many Christ followers resonate and gravitate toward missional talk, personal piety, and appeals for authentic community. But for too many, these remain simply “talk� or even “pipe dreams.�
Why courage? Because as C.S. Lewis has written, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.�
Consider Joshua, at a pivotal moment in God’s mission, Joshua was commissioned by God to succeed Moses as the leader of God’s people. The Lord appears to Joshua and exhorts him, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful� (Josh 1:7-8). You can read a full exposition of this text here.
Here are some other quotations on courage that I have found helpful and gleaned recently from several sources (online quotation collections, John Maxwell’s recent book Talent is Never Enough).
John Wooden: “Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.â€?
Karl Barth: “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.�
Florence Nightingale: “Courage is…the universal virtue of all those who choose to do the right thing over the expedient thing. It is the common currency of al those who do what they are supposed to do in a time of conflict, crisis, and confusion.�
George S. Patton: “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.�
John C. Maxwell: “The opposite of courage isn’t cowardice; it is conformity.�
Sydney Smith: “A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.�
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you, ‘You are wrong.’ There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage which a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men to win them.�
I would add two of my own insights to these. When we are thinking about fulfilling our part of the mission of God, it is vital to be courageous. Courage is the key that opens the door to the life of God’s dreams. Only courage can transform an individual from a person who might into a person who must.
May we find the courage to live as the people whom God created us to be and to launch communities of God’s dreams.
© 2007 Brian D. Russell
Brian blogs 3-5 times per week on the Real Meal blog.