Courage Quest
“My peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts (cardia) be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
The current film DARKEST HOUR depicts Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s 1940 stormy leadership that persuaded the British to fight Hitler, not acquiesce to a freedom hemorrhaging pseudo-treaty.
The film ends with a white on black screen quote…
“Success is not final;
Failure is not fatal:
It is courage to continue that counts.”
Not the first time, but in recent months a sort of life scan of courage has cranked up in me. That’s a search of what’s inside us and around us that can describe, define courage. Even more importantly, it is a quest for some clues of how such courage shows up for lives worth living and dying for.
Call it synchronicity, serendipity or whatever, since the quest for courage has bubbled up/dropped in again for me, traces and glimpses are all around.
Books and movies recalled: The Red Badge of Courage; Profiles in Courage; Undaunted Courage; Captains Courageous… Quips, quotes appear almost daily in media. I excavated 16 of my sermons with courage in the title.
My courage files have bulked up. It is not yet revealed what, if anything, will come of them. Bill Curl, one of my hero mentors, said he had to talk about something to figure out what he thought about it. For Morgan, I have to write about something to find out what I think…that may hopefully eventuate as help for a few.
Courage is one of those hard to define realities we know when we see it; sorely miss when we don’t. A current attempt at a working definition…
+ Courage, more gift than achievement, is strength of heart greater than our fears, to act for the best in others and ourselves.
Yep. No goose bumps. Can’t quite sing or dance to it. Provisional …something to work with and work on us. Some courage tracks…
Courage & Heart: The ‘heart’ of the word courage is…heart. From the French word for heart ‘coeur’ back through Latin to Greek ‘cardia’. Most of us have figured out that courage is less about muscle mass, more about keeping heart in a world that often causes us to lose heart.
The word heart shows up in the Bible some 886 times; courage 98 times. Lester Seigel, my patient tutor for the Hebrew background of Biblical words, tells me the root for courage is mainly strength. Check out Joshua 1. Don’t overthink the movie or Mel Gibson! But the term ‘brave heart’ gets at it.
Courage and Fear: Growing up with my buddies, we had poultry-phobia. Brushing into adolescence, the challenge of the dare du jour… ring the crabby neighbor’s doorbell and run – bike down the hill hands-free – stand up to the playground bully (BTW: hardest thing for my first 12 years) – phone or talk with a girl in the lunchroom…was ‘Or are you chicken?’
For sure, fear not/do not be afraid show up cumulatively 300+ times in the Bible. To scared Israelites; speechless Zechariah; ingénue Mary; embarrassed Joseph; rattled shepherds; anxious crowds; shaky disciples and such. Recall how Peter for a while at least chickened out.
There is that famous Bible verse from 1 John… “Perfect love casts out fear.” Maybe so, but except Jesus, who has perfect love this side of eternity?
In Darkest Hour, stuttery King George and blustery Winston have a prickly relationship that develops into mutual appreciation and resolution to resist the Nazi threat. The King asks the Prime Minister, “aren’t you afraid?” Winston answers: “Most terribly…”
My sense, by no means limited to me, is great courage is great not because of the absence of fear but the presence of a strength and resolve greater and in spite of the fear that would otherwise paralyze action. God brings forth to and through us a great nevertheless to hang in there, stick with one another!
All those Biblical saintly scoundrels and scandalous saints were given strength greater than their fears. And in chicken-hearted Peter’s case, Jesus gave more than one chance for a courage do-over.
Courage and Unexpected People: Thanks to Rick Owen, I re-read To Kill A Mockingbird last week. Before, I read the story through the lens of Atticus’ integrity to be the same at home and in public, to treat all people, not just some, with fairness. That abides. But this time I was struck by Atticus’ courage not because he was fearless but in spite of his fear.
Atticus gives Jem and Scout a teaching moment when their cranky sharp-tongued old neighbor Mrs. Dubose, with whom the Finch kids had run-ins, dies. Painfully ill for years, Mrs. Dubose became morphine addicted. In her final months, Mrs. Dubose determined to be dependency-free, fully conscious as she could be for her remaining life.
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you are licked before you begin but you begin anyway, and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.”
My hat’s off and heart’s out to those in harm’s way who respond with courage and do not react with fear – first responders, peace officers, military personnel whether we agree or not with the politics/morality that put them in danger. Yes, yes.
But there are other courageous ones. There is special courage of those who at long last speak up/ hold up their heads for themselves.
- The people of the #MeToo movement.
- Those who find the courage to leave an abusive situation.
- Those who face great hardship to become Americans.
- Those who seek to love and be loved the way their hearts lead them.
- Those who face racial challenges white guys like me just barely get.
The truth is having and facing our fears goes with the territory of being human beings. Best I can tell we all have our fears, at least at times: whether we can make it, take it, go on, speak up, stand up, survive, or perchance thrive when the hard stuff happens to us, those we love, even our world.
So, courage for 2018! Heart to continue in your particular set of perplexities and possibilities, dangers and wonders, wounds and blessings. Jesus’ courage is with you and through you to others.