Selecting for courage is an interesting idea, especially since it seems to be a forgotten virtue these days after endless months of “Stay home. Stay safe.” Nothing wrong with home—I’m quite partial to it myself—but there is something disquieting about the constant public messaging that personal safety is the highest ideal. If that were so, we wouldn’t lionize the likes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or Joan of Arc, who stood up to terrifying foes and paid for their courageous convictions with their lives. Rather, we would instead congratulate the nameless multitude who did nothing to counteract the evil of their day. Likewise, our culture wouldn’t tell the tales of the personal courage it takes to overcome overwhelming odds. Frodo would have stayed comfortable at Bag End. Aslan wouldn’t have sacrificed himself upon the stone table. Bonhoeffer wouldn’t have tried to kill Hitler. Joan of Arc wouldn’t have carried her banner into battle. And, most critically, Jesus wouldn’t have set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem to endure the cross, either.
The personal temptation toward comfort and safety is always singing its siren song—and unless we stop up our ears like the sailors in Homer’s Odyssey—we risk being broken on the rocks of cowardice and consumed by unholy monsters. But what engenders courage? It’s a question we’d do well to ask ourselves since we aren’t running newborn babies through behavioural tests to demonstrate which one will cower at home and which will rush a bad guy with a gun.
“Courage is not just one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point.”
C.S Lewis
Fear--and its attendant uncertainty--is a litmus test revealing where we have placed our faith. It is in the storm of known and unknown dangers where we face threats to our safety and comfort; that we instinctively reach out to that in which we have placed our trust.
I think we hope that it will be God, but it isn’t until we are tested that we find out for sure. In His mercy, He allows this testing to reveal that we have turned to other gods—which are not gods at all—because they are solutions that we can see and touch and make with our own hands. A test reveals deficiencies for the sake of remedy,--not condemnation. Even when we are faithless, He is faithful.
Time and again throughout Scripture He reveals His character of faithfulness; urging us to rely on Him. Faith in God will always require that we trust Him unseen against the mounting odds of what we can see. He hasn’t allowed us another option, reminding us in Hebrews that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Faith is an attribute of God’s own character gifted to us—and it takes courage to wield it.
This past summer Nala amazed everyone with her constant displays of courageous devotion to my brother. She rode confidently on a jet ski with her head rested on his shoulder because she wouldn’t bear to be parted from him; persistently swimming after him if he tried to leave without her. There is something of Moses in that dog. “If your Presence does not go with me, bring us not up from this place.” (Ex. 33:15) Trusting God in the midst of a storm takes courageous faith that is renewed moment by moment as the wind howls and the waves mount. But courage isn’t as hard to find when we truly trust the One to whom we’re devoted. We can rest our chin on His shoulder and enjoy the ride. After all, He selected us for this courageous faith before the foundation of the world.
A version of this article was published in the Sept/Oct issue of live magazine. Check them out at: www.baptistwomen.com
