Courage

If you had all the courage in the world, what would you change about the way you live?

A question similar to that was posed to me recently, which really got me thinking. In what ways would I live differently? I guess to accurately answer that question I need to determine in what facets of my life I lack courage and, more importantly, in what ways fear affects my actions.

In general, I feel like I am fairly blunt and bold in my words and actions. When I am reserved and timid, it is often with purpose and intention. There are instances and situations in which I am restrained by fear, but for the most part I live boldly and feign courage when I lack it. So, how does fear affect the way I live?

I think the greatest area I lack courage in is telling myself the truth. This, I believe, is true of all humans, to an extent. Living in the comfortable world of our fantasies- believing and basing our actions on what we want to be true, rather than what is true- is so much easier than accepting reality. Reality is terrifying, so we hide from it by surrounding ourselves with walls of illusion. Rather than facing the harsh truths of reality, it is so much easier to be ignorant, to deny or conveniently look away from the evil in the world, the negative consequences and impurity of our decisions, the rampant existence of brokenness and desperation, and our inability to attain perfection or even live up to our own standards. We become convicted in the face of reality and we must change, alter our perspectives and our actions, often involving a complete paradigm shift. Such a change is rarely welcomed and never easy.

I assume, then, if I had all the courage in the world, I would quit living inside the walls of illusion I have created. I would come to terms with the fact that there are some things in life I can't change, no matter how much I want to or try. This is something I've been working on the past year- telling myself the truth. I am learning that I, in my human nature, fail. I can't always live up to my own standards. I am going to make mistakes; others will make mistakes. I will disappoint myself and others at times, and vice versa. Life won't always go as planned, and there is really nothing I can do about it. I can try my darnedest and encourage others to do the same, but, beyond that, life is in God's hands. Admitting life's imperfections rather than clinging to a grandiose facade allows me realize that only One I can and should trust with my life, my hopes, my desires, my satisfaction, my uncertainties, the measure of my value, etc. is God. All my hope should be placed in Him. He should be my one and only desire. I should seek approval, satisfaction, and value from Christ alone, for He is the only One who will never fall short. He is in control, not I; my life should be lived in submission to His will, for He knows better than I.


"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." ~ Ambrose Redmoon


Fears will change, but the state of fear will never dissipate. Regardless, if courage is a choice, then we can choose to have immense courage. I can continually choose to live in Truth, realizing that living in the light as we are called to do, is far more important that any fears I may have of doing so.