Over the last week or so, I’ve been wrestling a lot with the concept of courage & what it looks like to be brave; to acknowledge fear but not let it have control. In January, I chose “courage” as my word for the year and it seems like it’s cropped up again and again over the last ten months. Instagram posts, blogs, Facebook statuses, inspirational Pinterest quotes that all celebrate bravery. It’s good and I’m glad and I celebrate that there seems to be a crew of people who are seeking after something similar.
But this week, it’s brought up this question: “What does it look like to live courageously in my life today?” As I’ve pondered, a blog that I read about a year ago kept rolling around my thoughts. If you’d like to read the whole thing, click the link here.
The gist is that we stand in times of corporate worship and sing these songs and invite Jesus to come and do uncomfortable things in our communities and families and personal lives and then are flabbergasted by times of refinement or moments of challenge. Please don’t misunderstand me: I’ve done it. I’ve been there. I’ve lifted my hands and claimed the words with my mouth but didn’t fully allow truth to permeate my heart. And, I get it. Sometimes you have to claim it til you believe it or fake it til you make it. But I just believe so fully that Jesus wants more than empty promises of pretty words on Sunday mornings: He wants our whole selves surrendered fully.
So here’s the song that keeps coming up in my thinking now:
The bridge of it has been particularly resonating. If you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, the part I’m referencing starts around the halfway mark of the video and goes like this:
You make me brave
You make me brave
You call me out beyond the shore into the waves
You make me brave
You make me brave
No fear can hinder now the love that made a way
I’m realizing that the decision to say “yes” to a stint of time overseas can be utterly glamorized and painted as the bravest thing a person could do. To pack up everything you need and carry it around in a backpack for the next year and enter into situations full of the unknown is certainly brave. To say goodbye to friends and family and the comforts of home takes a lot of courage. That initial yes is so important, but so is everything that comes after that.
When you’re sitting in a circle of people you don’t really know that well but will be spending the foreseeable future with and they’re honestly starting to get on your nerves, it takes courage to communicate in a healthy way. It takes courage to extend grace. It takes an insane amount of courage to share your struggles or your story or your sins. It’s brave to enter into covenant relationships of trust and decide that perhaps the way that you’ve always done things isn’t the way that you always want to do things. Brave is the number one word that comes to mind when I think of a person who’s willing to release control and selfish ambition in order to take on more of the heart of the Father.
So is it brave to do overseas missions? Oh, for sure. But it’s next level insane to me to allow yourself to be deeply transformed in the process. To be brokenhearted for the people that you come in contact with on a daily basis and to fully connect with the people around you. And, for those of you who won’t be heading overseas anytime soon, I have fantastic news for you: this is possible exactly where you’re at today.
I don’t know precisely what courage looks like for you today but I’m guessing that you do. I’m guessing that there’s something that’s been stirring in you, tugging at your gut that you’ve successfully pushed down for sometime. I’m here to say that it’s time to let it out. It’s time to stop letting fear make decisions for you or prevent you from pursuing something great. It’s time to stand up and step out and trust that the Lord will catch you when you fall. Because He’s not asking for 100% success rate, He’s asking for your full trust 100% of the time.
