Real Courage

"I want you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."--Atticus Finch

I don't consider myself a particularly courageous person--in fact, I would consider myself the exact opposite. I'm the perpetual worrywart (and I have been that way practically my whole life.); I get freaked out at the thought of airplanes, cancer, etc. etc. But upon reading "To Kill a Mockingbird," I really let the words of Atticus sink in...

There is more to courage than standing before a noticeable foe; it takes an even stronger form of courage to stand in the face of the unforeseen. For Atticus, it took courage to keep defending Tom Robinson (his colored client accused of raping a white girl) in the midst of angry lynch mobs and the town's spiteful hate. He knew that is was pretty much a hopeless cause; Tom Robinson would be convicted and condemned...but he followed through anyway.

I thought about how that might apply to me. And then it hit me. It takes a lot of courage to go against the status quo, whether it be in mainstream circles or, yes, even conservative ones. Over the past year, I have seen God change me, and continue to do so, into the woman He has for me to be...but it sure isn't easy sometimes. People don't understand why I am against dating in its most practiced form--or why I am okay with girls going to college if that is the way God leads them. It's foolhardy to try and explain myself....but I continue ahead.

Instead of going on and on about myself, I want you to think about yourselves: how have you defined "courage?" I'm not going to leave you with a profound statement--I don't have one. Rather, I just want to encourage you with this: you do possess courage in some manner! Go with that today.