Courage & Faith: The Battle Within
I am excited to share that this week, I was able to do a lot of driving, allowing me time to catch up on many of my podcasts as well as dig into some new books. I want to share an idea I was introduced to this week that I found very compelling. It is an idea I have spent most of this week thinking through. I was listening to the Modern Wisdom podcast, and Chris Williamson, who hosts this podcast, brought up the idea that courage is a virtue that you can’t fake. The idea goes something like this:
“Courage is doing the thing you know is right, despite the fear of doing it.”
I have often thought of the men who charged the beaches of Normandy, and I have wondered if I could do it. Could I have done it? Would I have had the courage to charge into the hail of bullets as I watched my friends being blown to pieces before my eyes? Or would I have fled like a coward? In the past, when I have thought of courage, I have thought of these men as fearless. Charging into battle without hesitation. As I thought of courage in this new light, I realized it was not that they were without fear as they charged those beaches in 1944; it was that they were afraid, but their fear did not rule them. Rather, they mastered their fears and chose to charge into hell for the sake of something bigger than themselves. I am reminded once more of John 15:13, which says this.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
As I thought through this, I realized that I don’t believe that Jesus went to the cross without fear. As seen in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is not eager to go to the cross. In fact, His anxiety is so great that He sweats blood. But in this scene, Jesus chooses to lay down His desires for the sake of others, and He submits His will to God. So, to put this idea into a single quote, I would say something like.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but instead, it is doing the thing that you fear despite your fear of doing it.”
As I wrestled with this idea, I found a new revelation. I think that faith is very much unfakeable, just like courage. Faith is continuing to do what you know is right despite not knowing the final result. Even as I wrote this, I remembered that the Bible says as much, but I don’t think it had registered fully. Hebrews 11: 1 says.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
I have often thought that if I had just had a little more faith, then maybe I would have gotten the result I had hoped for, or I have felt like God is disappointed in me because I didn’t have enough faith because sometimes I doubt Him. I find that I mentally berate myself, thinking that things would be different if only I had not doubted or if I had just a little more faith. So, I wage a mental war, but as I thought through this idea of courage and faith. I realize that faith is not this passive thing we do, and this, too, is something the Bible speaks to, saying that faith is followed by works. James 2: 14-24 says.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
Our faith is exercised in our actions. I can say that I believe that God will provide, but if my actions are always me trying to provide for myself, then where is my faith? Yet, I often feel as though I don’t have enough faith because often I do doubt. And so I create this mental trap of believing that if I say I have faith that God will provide, but then when I don’t perfectly follow that statement of belief, then I am a failure because my actions have not aligned with my words.
I often find myself discouraged because I find that I repeatedly wrestle with the same things. And so when I return to a place where I have previously been, I am then disappointed with myself for not having overcome it yet. But faith is not a one-and-done thing. It is continually working out of that faith, and it is continually aligning your actions with your beliefs. Faith is to continue to do, what you know to do, and trust that God will fill in the rest. If we say we believe that God will provide, and yet our works are constantly us trying to provide for ourselves what God has promised to provide, then it is not faith. This is the battleground of my heart and mind; I find that I often question if I truly have faith because I have questioned God, and I question His ability. Yet, just like courage, if I keep running into the unknown I believe I have been called to, despite not knowing the final result, then I am living by faith. And I am being faithful, even when I feel as though I am a failure or have failed to do what God has expected of me.
I have much more to share and say, as I learned a ton this week from the books I read. But since this post is already fairly long, I am going to share my thoughts on these books in a separate post, as both of these books have left me with much to say about the ideas they introduced. Once more, I say thank you all for joining me on this continued journey of learning and growing. Seeking to become all that God has created me to be, and trusting by faith, that despite the fact that I do not see the fruits of this season of life, eventually, in due time, God will reveal to me how He was at work.
