COURAGE… What is it? Some say it’s using a machine gun to defend your platoon in a bloody battle. Others say it’s using your words and deeds to fight for the rights of others, despite your own personal safety. Some say it’s calling your wife after an airplane deliberately hit the building you work in and knowing there’s no way out. Others say it’s taking responsibility for your actions in a personal relationship.
Throughout history, there have been many heroes that everyday citizens have applauded and that we lay wreaths at their cemetery stones. I am reminded of the sacrifices others have made for our country as I watch another flag draped coffin fly into Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware. I have witnessed and read about too many situations where racism and hatred have raged by dishonorable men and women who don’t care about anyone but themselves. Our world is based on acknowledging our differences rather than our commonalities. Today is 9/11, and our nation lost so many good and courageous people in the Twin Towers on that awful day. I have my own personal struggle to forgive those who have really hurt me to my core.
Courage is placing your faith in God and what He has promised us. It’s putting love in action for others before our own needs. It’s giving others hope where once there was only despair. It’s asking God to make us instruments of His peace in a world that has forgotten how to forgive. It’s knowing that each of us has a God-given purpose to help make the world a better place. It’s realizing that all things are possible with God, no matter how hard they are to do.
Courage comes in many shapes and sizes. It means drawing a line in the sand and demands that we do a little more each time we search for or defend the truth, the light, and the way. Every time we cross over that line, we must carry another child, help another struggling adult, or defend another principle we or others believe in. Every path has its muddy puddles, its slippery streams, its roaring rivers, and its turbulent oceans to cross, but when we get to the shoreline, we see Christ standing on the other side saying, “Follow me, and I will give you peace. Fear not, for I am with you.” He will walk on water for us, take our hand so that we will not sink, and carry us to victory, even if it means carrying both of our crosses. There is no greater example of courage than the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Just as God gives wings to birds so they can fly, He gives us courage to be the best human beings we can be. Courage is a gift from God to help us love each other as we would want to be loved, regardless of any personal consequences. Anything else is an affront to our Heavenly Father and a discredit to humanity.
Anna Hartt
