You all might know that I don’t prepare what I say after the sermon. I

do this to allow room for the Spirit. To not over plan and constrain

what Good Words can come out. This week, I felt called to talk about

fear and action and where our faith should take us.

I decided to look more into courage. Courage is the choice and

willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or

intimidation. Moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of

popular opposition, shame, scandal, discouragement, or personal

loss. C. S. Lewis wrote that "Courage is not simply one of the virtues

but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the

point of highest reality." Along those lines Maya Angelou said,

“Courage is the most important of the virtues, because without

courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can

practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without

courage."

Something that we talk about in our house is that courage is not

being without fear, it is being in fear and doing it anyways. Whether

that means talking to new friends or trying new challenges, the only

way to fall short is to let fear dictate where we stop.

Faith and courage is something that is uncomfortable, because to be

faithful and courageous we have to be uncomfortable. Without

hardship, without barriers to overcome, without opposition there is

not courage. But without courage we are without. Without

movement. Without growth. Without mission. Without life.

Following Christ is a courageous act when we live it out, for Christ is

not of this world and nor are we.