Joshua 1:7 “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.”
What does “courage” look like to you? Maybe you picture courage as Sam and Frodo fighting through unthinkable evil to throw the Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom. Or Hans Solo doing whatever it takes to defeat the Galactic Empire. Maybe even John Wayne risking his life to bring down the outlaws. You might envision courage in the form of Rosa Parks, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, or Winston Churchill, who all stood firm in spite of overwhelming odds against them.
CS Lewis writes in The Screwtape Letters that although Satan has been fairly successful in causing men to take pride in most vices, not so much when it comes to cowardice. No matter how far we drift from moral standards, our culture still esteems courage over spinelessness. Lewis writes, “courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” It takes courage to have hope when your wild dreams turn into ashes. It takes courage to show love when someone lands a gut punch to your heart. And when everyone praises your success, it takes courage to choose humility.
It takes courage to do hard things, new things, just about anything holding significance. Whether a toddler taking those first steps or a 70-something facing retirement, it takes courage to move into the unknown.
So how do we cultivate courage?
Right before Israel entered the Promised Land, God told Joshua to be “strong and courageous.” Not once or twice, but four times in the first chapter of Joshua! The task before Israel was formidable, but they could overcome fear. How? By listening to God’s word. They would succeed if they carefully followed the Book of the Law (Joshua 1:8).
If we hope to cultivate courage, it won’t happen by following what our heart tells us to do, as the current culture would have us believe. Courage that meets the test is courage that comes from enacting the truth found in the Word of God. It’s amazing how fears fade with the sound of scripture.
So whatever you may be facing, I pray for you the words Aslan spoke to Lucy when darkness threatened to overcome them (Voyage of the Dawn Treader). “Take courage, dear heart.”