Brave

Joel and Julia have adopted a son. He's nine and it's new and there's tension. In how to parent him, in how to bring him into the family, how to love him as their own. They tell him about baseball and the boy isn't good and he swings and misses and he yells and screams and lashes out at his failure.

Minutes measured in TV time later, Joel goes into the boy's room and sits down to talk to him. And he looks him in the eye and he says.

I was incredibly proud of you. You went out and you tried something you've never done before. with kids you've never met. That's brave. That's so incredibly brave. Are you scared? I would have been. 

The freedom to acknowledge the scary, to encourage the brave, and to say me too. oh, me too. 

I think about my friend Werewolf Jesus' post on courage and bravery and how we can pass courage to each other. She writes, 

"I’ve shared how it’s been difficult to start writing again. Difficult to face my monsters and be brave, put on my armor and fight. It seems whenever I’m ready to lay down and give up, someone sends a message or writes a letter or gives me a little pep talk that encourages me.

I mean it literally fills me with courage.

And I wonder if that’s the key. 

Is this why kids are so brave? Because we tell them all of the time that are capable of winning their battles? That they are worthy of the fight? Because it’s so easy to tell a kid he is smart but somehow so difficult to tell your coworker that they are patient. If we see a little girl on a bus, it’s so easy to say “well don’t you look pretty!” but when is the last time we told our aunt she looks pretty or told the cashier at rite aid that she has a nice smile?

What if you’re an adult, facing your adult-sized monsters and you just don’t feel brave? I understand that our courage should come from Christ, that perfect love casts out fear, that He that is within us is greater than that which is in the world. I know that. And I know we all know that. But perhaps there is a function of the Body here that we’re overlooking. How different, how much braver, how much more proactive would we all be if we took the time to extend courage to each other?

If you have something nice to say, SAY IT.

Make someone brave. Extend courage.  

Let’s be nicer to each other. Let’s win some battles.

Every day is a battle and we've got to be brave. We've got to remember what we daily forget, we've got to put on our armor, speak the Word of God, and we've got to stand firm. We've got to keep going because we're all in sanctifying process together. And if you can't see where you're going or if the Lord is leading you somewhere you didn't envision, eyes can't see and pain can grip. 

But then. what I've learned, is that after that moment of surrender, FREEDOM. 

Be brave because..

God is GOOD.

Joy is in abundant life with Jesus. 

All who are weary can come to Jesus for rest.  

Because we need people to remind us, to sit with us, and to point us to that Cross. 

Relief is in the release of everything into the hands of God. Isn't it all safer in His hands anyway? (ann voskamp)

Look back at the hardest times, the times when you trusted, the most blind, the times when you were the bravest, and can't you say those were the best? The most abundant ones, the ones with the most fruit? by the pure grace of God. 

Every time we choose, we're made more like Jesus. 

We can be brave because we hope in Christ Jesus. 

and isn't that better than living in fear?

Through the unknown and the scary and the change and the way that doesn't feel lit, we are led by a God who loves us fiercely and compassionately, who promises in Psalm 73 to guide us and receive us to glory, and who sent His Son to die to absorb all the brokenness and the fear. We're set free, aren't we?

Give yourself permission to be brave.

Live courageously.

And spread the word.