I grew up on stories of courage.  I imagine most boys did.  The Alamo, David and Goliath, Pickett’s Charge, and literally so many more I could list them all day.  Courage was pretty much a one dimensional characteristic, bravery in the face of overwhelming odds that could result in the loss of your life.  It wasn’t until later in life that I began to understand courage a little more.

Straight to the point, real life takes courage.  Because real life is messy and real life is hard.  This world is full of suffering, pain, disease, brokenness, heartbreak, loss, and death.  At the same time, we must remind ourselves that as Christ followers, we have the ultimate answer to the pain.  The power of the cross is the power over this world.  The ultimate pain of this world is death, and Christ defeated death.  To be fair, much of the time, it feels like the “ultimate” answer pales in comparison to the scope of the problems we see.  How do I as a Christ follower, make an impact on all the starving children in the world.  How do I help the runaway kids, the addicted, the orphans, the hopelessness of those struggling to feed their family another day?

The problems are so overwhelming that the easy answer is simply to make a surface acknowledgement of the problem (it’s heartbreaking about all those refugees….) and then move on.  This allows us to feel better about our sense of compassion and our desire to do something, but of course, what can we do when the problem is so huge?  So we do nothing.  Or maybe wear a ribbon.

The problems of this world are far beyond our ability to solve.  Thankfully, our job is not to solve the world’s problems.  I believe our job is much simpler than we make it out to be.  The key word is do.  First “do” on the list is pray.  Again, I don’t fully understand the power and impact of prayer, but I don’t have to understand it all to do it.  So pray.  I’m pretty good at the OTP.  The One Time Prayer.  Where I see pain and suffering, most often at a distance honestly, I say a prayer.  Then I move back into my world and my focus on me.  I’m convicted that an OTP is better than no prayer, but I’m working on consistency and faithfulness in praying for something.  Honestly, I’m an abject failure at a consistent prayer, but I’m not giving up on myself.  The second “do” is just do. Something.  Anything.  Be courageous enough to see pain and suffering, and stop.  Stop, and then engage.  Listen.  Give.  Pray.  Be part of the solution.  Yes, engaging in suffering can be scary, and even dangerous.  It’s much safer to say a OTP and move on.  I believe more is required of us.  I believe we are to engage, even when it’s scary, maybe especially when it’s scary.  Christ spent much of his life bursting the protective bubble of the religious, and modeling engagement with the outcasts, the lonely, the broken, and yes, the scary and dangerous (Mark 5:1-20 for example).

I’m reminded of the old story of a man walking along the beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up.  He was picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the ocean.  Another man came by and said, why are you even bothering?  You can’t save even a fraction of them!  The first man said, maybe not, but it makes all the difference in the world to this one.

Being a Christ follower in our country does not take courage.  It’s easy, it’s safe, and it’s pretty comfortable.  I’m very ok with that way to much of the time.  In fact, I’m hard pressed to come up with any stories of my personal courage at all.  Undoubtedly, more is demanded of me.  More courage.  More compassion.  I want the courage to engage with suffering.  I can’t let the scope of the problem keep me from starting, after all, I can make all the difference in the world to one.  Be strong and courageous.  And do.

Grace and peace