Courage Is . . .

Once again, I find myself searching for meaning in suffering, nearly blinding myself trying to see the face of the Invisible God.  Once again, He reaches out and touches me with a song. 

What is courage?  Here are some great quotes trying to define it:

• Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.
  Amelia Earhart (1897 - 1937), Courage, 1927


• Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
  Anais Nin (1903 - 1977), The Diary of Anais Nin, volume 3, 1939-1944


• Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts. Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)


• Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount. Clare Booth Luce (1903 - 1987), in Reader's Digest, 1979


• The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly. Corra Harris


• Courage is fear that has said its prayers. Dorothy Bernard


• Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. Eddie Rickenbacker (1890 - 1973)


• Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death. Harold Wilson (1916 - 1995)


• I wanted 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 you see it through no matter what. Harper Lee (1926 - ), To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960


• Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway.John Wayne (1907 - 1979)


• Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)


• It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)


• The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966


• When you meet your antagonist, do everything in a mild and agreeable manner. Let your courage be as keen, but at the same time as polished, as your sword. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 - 1816)


• Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)

I think courage is something you can only know when you see it practiced or feel it lift you above the fray and embolden you to go tenaciously forward, eyes on the prize, unsurrendered to the circumstances.

I, personally, find my strength and courage in God.  That peace that
passes all understanding is only understood when you are on your face before God in the eye of the hurricane wondering where the wind went and knowing it is all around and will soon try to scoop you up and away in a very un-Super way.  I will never understand all of the whys of this life, but I know that He does, and I am convinced I can trust Him with my life and circumstances.

I am surrounded and encouraged by others who also find courage in their faith.    I find comfort for my own struggles in praying for theirs.  My boss and friend Wendy and her family, my sisters and brother, Andy, my niece Adrienne, my husband Jerry, the Gunderson family and so many others who choose to look forward as best as they can, by the grace and mercy of God.  Thank you my friends and family for the encouragement you are to me and many others.

Please enjoy this song, pray for me and my friends and family as we walk through the valley. 

And now . . .  drumroll please . . . the aforementioned song.

Courage Is . . . by the Strange Familiar  (lyrics below)

"Courage Is"

 Take all my vicious words

And turn them into something good

Take all my preconceptions

And let the truth be understood

Take all my prized possessions

Leave only what I need

Take all my pieces of doubt

And let me be what's underneath

 

Courage is when you're afraid,

But you keep on moving anyway

Courage is when you're in pain,

But you keep on living anyway

 

We all have excuses why

Living in fear something in us dies

Like a bird with broken wings

It's not how high he flies,

But the song he sings

 

Courage is when you're afraid,

But you keep on moving anyway

Courage is when you're in pain,

But you keep on living anyway

 

It's not how many times you've been knocked down

It's how many times you get back up

 

Courage is when you've lost your way,

But you find your strength anyway

Courage is when you're afraid

Courage is when it all seems grey

Courage is when you make a change,

And you keep on living anyway

 

You keep on moving anyway

You keep on giving anyway

You keep on loving anyway

*************

Take courage my friends.  He knows your needs. 
He cares for you.  His love for you is limitless.  If you still haven't found what you're looking for, look up to your Creator.

If you have a prayer request, feel free to post it in the comments or for more privacy, e-mail it to me.  I have much time to pray now, sequestered in my room with two air filters, battling the collective smoke of over a 1,400 fires.

Pray for Jerry and I, that we would know God's will and how to accomplish it. 
Pray for your friends and relatives.  Pray for our nation, our current President, Congress and Senate, and those elected this Fall. 

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."Jer 29:11-14  NIV