It’s time for courage.
As I read magazines and watch newscasts on the web I constantly see men and women who brave the marketplace to introduce a new product. They courageously bring these products with the hope of changing the world that we live in. We’ve seen enough big ideas and heard enough testimonies to tell us that ideas abound (both good and inane) that can revolutionize people’s lives both in quality of life and financially. With this “utopia” dangled in front of us, we gird up our optimism to tackle the challenges of free market opportunities.
But one of the areas where I see a need for courage is in the area of personal responsibility.
I’m seeing men and women who somehow can’t take the courage they exhibit in the marketplace and apply it to their personal lives. Maybe it’s the demands of their jobs; a career that is so challenging that it has inhibited growth in the other areas of their life. Maybe it’s the siren song of success that causes us to go mad. (If you remember the Odyssey, Odysseus had to tie himself to the ship’s mast as they passed the sirens. If any man didn’t, he would go crazy.) But these times call out for courage in other areas:
1. The courage to trust people. It takes a lot of strength to open up to people and let them into our lives. Part of our journey is to get back into the garden of Eden – where we walk naked and are unashamed. To stop the hiding mechanisms that we use and build trust with a small group of friends frees up a huge amount of energy.
2. The courage to walk in integrity. I been researching the relationship of happiness and success. One study stated that those people who were the most satisfied with life were those who were not measuring themselves by others, but felt free to be themselves. To stop looking at everyone around us, to gain our own worth, takes a lot of courage.
3. The courage to take a chance. To create a life in a sterilized neutered environment is one of the ultimate eco-catastrophes. To choose the slow death of self absorption is one of the saddest results of American materialism.
4. The courage to make a difference. It doesn’t come easy, nor is it supposed to. In the Lord of the Rings, Sam tells Frodo that the thing that makes an adventure great is that you don’t know what the outcome will be. But it is better to live with the temporary pain of difficulty over the constant agony of holding back. It’s these moments that become the bedrock of future achievement.
I know, this is a highly charged blog. But my wife and I have experienced a joy so profound that we can’t stop talking about it. The amazing thing about this joy is that it’s in the midst of overwhelming challenges, but we see our lot in life as forming and shaping us, and we can see how God has been faithfully guiding us for HIS purposes and not our own.
To many of you this may seem like the ranting of a church planter getting on his feet. To others, it may be what you need to hear to stay the course even though it feels so hard that you’re wondering how to take the next step. We’re all learning in victory and defeat. But in the end, may we all say that we lived life and our lives were abundant. That was the goal of Jesus – to open the door to our Creator so that we could experience life with all of it’s amazing moments and amazing setbacks.
He gives us the courage that we need when it’s time for courage.
