Something made me think about courage recently...the courage it will take to make it through the long days and nights of grief ahead. In my head - in the thinking part of me, I can recite verses, pray, read my Bible, call on the Lord, and do all those "Christian" things I've learned to do, but the grief in my heart doesn't magically float away...even when I pray for it to. Which brings me to my point about courage.
The Bible is full of the phrase, "Be strong and of good courage..." Did you hear that? "Be strong and of good courage..." So many times as Christians, we want the great stuff of God without the pain, struggle, heartache, injustice, humiliation, and death faced by our Lord. We have no courage.
God is black and white, not gray. He doesn't ever tell us The Way will be easy. He's honest and forthright. He tells us over and over again to "be strong and of good courage."
Courage - what is it anyway? Having the strength to continue despite whatever fear or danger or difficulty may be involved...bravery, boldness, fearlessness, mettle, fortitude, or intrepidity. Courage.
To face down death, to praise God's victory over death, to ask "O, death where is thy victory? O, grave, where is thy sting?" This will take more courage than I have. I am weak; He is strong. I am faithless; He is faithful. I am afraid I can't do it; He says, "Be strong and of good courage."
If He equips me to do all he asks, then shouldn't I? Even when I don't want to, can't, won't, hate it? The road is a rocky one strewn with the impossibility of overcoming this sorrow. But He says, "Be strong and of good courage." So that is what I am doing today, this moment, this second. It's just so hard. The ache of missing Zach envelops and chokes and surrounds and squeezes me like a thick, sticky, dark, clutching web. I can't survive this grief alone.
Whatever you are faced with, whatever God is trying you with today, whatever test He is giving you, "Be strong and of good courage." Christianity really isn't for the faint of heart - it is full of trials meant to grow us to His glory. Of one thing I am certain -when we seek Him in the midst of those trials, He will make us strong and he will give us courage. He will make me strong and He will give me courage and because of Him, I will make it through another second, another minute, another day.
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