courage

"be courageous."

I have said it, had it said to me...we named our son Caleb, which has as one of its meanings, courageous.

Is courage a spiritual quality? Or a natural quality? Do some people have it and some don't?

Stumbled across this in some reading late(very late) last night. The word courage comes from the Latin word cor, which means "heart". A courageous act is an act coming from the heart. A courageous word is a word arising from the heart. The heart, however, is not just the place where our emotions are located. The heart is the centre of our being, the centre of all thoughts, feelings, passions, and decisions. The womb of our dreams, the place of our DNA(who we were meant to be as His kids). Being courageous is living with your heart. Putting it all on the table and givin er...

follow me for a sec...

We catch glimmers. Had a conversation regarding religion once...and it made me think about that word in its best sense. James talks about religion of value, so lets pursue that for a little bit. Religion is something that describes an area of our life and experience where in some way or another we have stumbled into a mystery and heard a summons to follow. An encounter that overwhelms us in that we have glimpsed something(Someone) so far beyond us and bigger than us that we are captured.

I think in some way we are all mystics. What do I mean? Inside all of our hearts there is a hunger for the supernatural...the taste, the touch, the feel, the awareness of that which is beyond...sort of yearning to journey towards that which we will never fully understand or see until we reach the destination.

You see, we have all seen more than we let on, even to ourselves. Through moments of beauty or pain we catch glimmers of what the "saints" or "hero's" of the faith were absolutely fixated by...but what captured and held them...we tend to go on as if nothing happened. No pause. No reflection. Little more than a pulse fluxuation.

Come on. Stop pretending you don't know. Relationship break up - cry for a day, find a new one. Sharp word spoken in anger to you - speak one back and move on...I mean, how dare they(and don't forget telling lots of people about their rudeness). Loneliness - pick your medication...food, TV, porn, work, people. Insecurity - find something that you are good at and don't venture out ever again. Summer Camp - powerful touch from God, but back to school...I mean you have to live real life. A Divine Moment where God once again stirs the dreams of your heart - find a way to stuff them back in and move on, cuz I mean, its not reasonable to think that stuff...are you following me yet?

We find ways to regain control...regain the flatline. when a truly alive, courageous heart has peaks and valleys...highs and lows...regularly...and all of them filled with the awesome, overwhelming, mystical reality of the true Lord Jesus...not our fake, serene looking deadpan Jesus...the one in most paintings.

To allow something to be as it is...something HAS happened, even though we are not sure what it is, or where we are supposed to go with it...well, that is what this journey of FAITH is all about. Don't shut it off. Don't shut it down...let it be what it is and embrace it...Because He is in the middle of all of it. Does it mean we live by emotion? No, we live by following the LIVING WORD...and feeling the tension, struggle, hardship, joy, exhilaration of the incredible journey we call FAITH!

Almost done...hold on. back to the beginning. courage. living with your heart. not your head. wait wait wait...for all you pragmaticals(new word...look up pragmatic and you will get my drift) I am not saying that you should live off of whims, but honestly, so many of us are so far from that it is no danger at all. Maybe a few of us jumping of mountaintops could swing us back into balance...chuckle.

living with your heart. What did God say to Joshua? 7 times in 3 chapters. BE STRONG AND what?

yeah. my translation? let me give you the strength to live out the dream(s) of your heart. a promised land. ignore the nay sayers, the people who will never believe and RUN.

the key? Don't shut your heart off. Your heart speaks the language of courage.

And the pain? and the joy? that is a part of the pursuit? do something with it. write. paint. speak. sculpt. design. do. Let your heart feel and breath and speak and sing...in the words of the martyr Jim Elliot, "wherever you are, be all there, live life to the hilt."

Let me leave you with a story I read about Blaise Pascal. No room to tell you who he is...look him up.

After he had died a servant found this paper sown into his jacket "since about half past ten in the evening until half past midnight. Fire. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace." This great man, stammering it out like a little child. But he had to...its what we do when we are courageous...we find a way to get it out.

read the book of Joshua...or at least the first 5 chapters...you'll see what I mean.

yearning,

Jonathan