Month: July 2021

A different kind of courage

What do we think of when we think of courage and bravery? I think of taking a stand, going into battle or working hard to overcome an obstacle. I think of the passage in Ephesians chapter six exhorting the reader to ‘put on the armour of God.’

But sometimes we require a courage of a different kind. The bravery that comes with endurance and suffering. I know several people who are walking this path now. The lonely, ugly, thorny path where you are faced with horrible news. An illness in the family, a marriage dissolving, a tragic event; the kind of news that is beyond repair. These are situations where there is nothing to do but keep breathing and walking.

This is the hard part of life. The part where there are no answers. We sometimes struggle to see the point in the suffering.

Jesus offers something very special to this group of people. He doesn’t offer human solutions, or rites or activities to get you through. He offers so much more. He offers himself.

When we find ourselves mired down in the tragedies of life we can reach for Jesus, and he will carry our burden.

Matthew 11: 28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Draw on His strength

I love words. I like to discover the meaning or root of the word. This is something that has always interested me. Not spelling, I’m a dreadful speller, but words I love.

Lately I have described my feelings as discouraged. Meaning that I have been feeling defeated or down. I listened to a presenter discuss this word ‘discouraged.’ And I realized, for the first time (shocked at myself for not realizing this earlier) that discouraged is actually to lack courage. Wow! Mind blown. This isn’t how we use this word in our world.

I am not discouraged. I may be down, I may be out but I’m still fighting. Being frustrated and depressed is not the same as lacking courage.

Maybe you are facing troubles too. Maybe you are feeling isolated and alone. The good news is, our courage and our strength doesn’t come from within us. We don’t have to be discouraged as we can draw on the power of the Almighty! We can be like David when he faced Goliath. He wasn’t sure because of his own strength, he was sure because God was with him.

Psalm 42: 11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Be brave

As a young woman I was exposed to the flavour of my age, through education and popular culture. While the values espoused in my home were very different, I could not avoid these great cultural influences. Much of this was communicated through education, particularly in my University English Literature classes. The view pushed was to see the past through the lens of feminism. The Bible could not be avoided in these classes as it is a perennial and important source throughout Literature. But it was represented as patriarchal and repressive. Our duty, as modern students, was to shake the shackles off and evolve!

Even when I was young I saw this as a lack of knowledge. The people voicing these opinions likely had little knowledge of the text they were abusing. They were making assumptions without full understanding.

Look at Moses, one of the great patriarchs. Proof of the dominance of men in the Judeo-Christian viewpoint. This man sent by God to free the people of Israel from bondage. And yet he doesn’t exist without brave women. Midwives who refuse to kill the male babies born to Israelite women. A brave mother who risks her life and that of her family, by hiding her male infant. Even Pharaoh’s daughter, who recognized the baby she found as a Hebrew baby and who decided to keep it against her father’s orders.

All of these individual acts set up and enable one of the greatest triumphs in the Old Testament. None of these women could have imagined what their small contribution would allow.

So today, when we are called upon to do things, great or small, remember we have no idea what God has planned. Male or female he can use us for His good.

Bless you

We have lived through a difficult season of life. Still living through it, actually. We have nothing firm under our feet. Our world is one strong wind away from being blown off the map.

I realized that until recently, about a hundred years or less, this is how the vast majority of people lived. In the large frame of history we are not unique. This is a helpful perspective.

I am thankful for much in my life. I am thankful that my husband and I are still a team even after everything we have been through. I’m thankful for my respectful and thoughtful children. I’m thankful for parents and close friends who encourage me and build me up.

I am also thankful for the opportunity to write here on this little blog and have so many people checking in and commenting. You have no idea the encouragement you have all been to me.

So today I say to you –

Numbers 6: 24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”