12 Feb 2011
Faith and Courage
Hanging on
I’ve been doing more thinking about the wrestle with faith, and more and more I am seeing a link between faith and courage.
The world tells you what normal is, and basically it is doing whatever you can to be in a position of independence, where you can be master of your own destiny.
Jesus tells me to let go of the ambition of independence and to trust.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
That means going against all the messages I hear on the television, in the newspaper, from school, from friends, from almost everyone and everything.
That’s not the difficult bit though, the real wrestle with faith comes from having to go against myself.
I love how Eugene Peterson translates Mark 14:38
Don’t be naive. Part of you is eager, ready for anything in God, but another part is as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.
I identify so much with this. There really is a part of me that loves God and wants to do whatever he wants me to. There is also very much a part that wants to do the exact opposite.
Faith means making choices against the part of me that is screaming for certainty, comfort and stability.
Faith means making choices despite the fact God never seems to do things the way I expect him to, or sometimes even want him to.
To have faith requires real courage. More and more I am seeing that one of the most important requirements of a life of faith is actually courage. Maya Angelou said
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”
More and more, my heroes are the ones who hang on.
So agree. Phillip Yancey in Soul Survivor talks alot about his heores through the centuries, who helped him “fight the good fight”. Love to you and your beautiful wife! Jox
Jo-Anne Otten
February 12th, 2011 at 7:59 pmpermalink