Courage. I thought I knew what that word meant. It can mean so many different things to so many different people, but to me it has always meant pushing through hard situations and appearing strong.
Boy was I wrong.
These past few months, as I finish school and prepare for launch, the Lord has been talking to me a lot about what courage really means. Courage isn’t about not being afraid to do scary things. Rather, courage is about being afraid and doing the scary thing anyways. It’s about closing your eyes and jumping, head first into whatever God calls you to do, no matter if you can’t see where your feet might land. It looks like not being afraid to admit that you don’t have it all together. It looks like being 100% true to who you are and how you’re feeling in any given moment. It means allowing yourself to take risks and make mistakes. It means letting go of who the world tells me I should be and becoming the best me I can be. It means taking risk in relationships. It means putting your heart on the line for a friend. It means building a life on honesty and transparency instead of trying to create a perfect appearance.
As I learn more and more about what courage means to me, the Lord keeps whispering, “Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it!” (Yes, this is a quote from Braveheart). That simple quote has been haunting me for weeks.
What does it look like to follow a free heart? It means all of the things above and so much more. Most of all, it means being unwilling to pretend to be anything other than what you are. So let your heart be free! You are beautiful just the way you are. You are smart. You are funny. You were created in the image of the King of Kings. There is only one you. No one could ever be a better you than you. The world is waiting for what you have. Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it!
