I often struggle to define courage and why I am so passionate about it.
Courage is one of those things that I recognize when I see it but wrestle to put the words together to create a definition.
In my efforts to define courage I often use a quote to help people understand what I am trying to convey when I speak one on one or to large groups.
One of my favorites is by John Wayne. “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”
That’s a strong quote for a look at courage from 35,000 feet.
Enter my friend, Ron. I haven’t known Ron very long, less than a year actually. He’s a little bit older than I am, a lot wiser than me, and a guy who lives courageously. He also has a passion for playing basketball and he’s in his 70’s!
Ron and his wife recently finished reading a book together titled Born to Win by Muriel James.
Ron knows my passion for courage and sent me the following quote from the very end of the book:
“It takes courage to be a real winner-not a winner in the sense of beating out someone else by always insisting on coming out on top-but a winner at responding to life. It takes courage to experience the freedom that comes with autonomy, courage to accept intimacy and directly encounter other persons, courage to take a stand in an unpopular cause, courage to choose authenticity over approval and to choose it again and again, courage to accept the responsibility for your own choices, and, indeed, courage to be the very unique person you really are. New ways are often uncertain ways and as Robert Frost expressed it, ‘courage is the human virtue that counts most-courage to act on limited knowledge and insufficient evidence. That’s all any of us have.’
“The path of an ethical person who is autonomously aware, spontaneous, and able to be intimate is not always easy; however, if such people recognize their ‘losing streaks’ and decide against them, they are likely to discover that they were born with what it takes to win.”
In a nutshell, my takeaway from this great quote is that everything comes down to a choice. We can choose to:
- Be intimate or be distant and aloof
- Stand alone or follow the crowd
- Be real with people or keep our masks on
- Make decisions based on what is in our best interests or do what we think others would like us to do
- Take responsibility for our lives or blame others and continue to get the same results
- Be who we were created to be or be what we think others want us to be
- Recognize each new day is a new opportunity or dwell in the mistakes of our past
Unfortunately, this list hits a little too close to home for me on every bullet point.
As I look at the list I also see sort of a to-do list. What will I choose to do each day based on the options provided with each bullet?
More often than not our choices to be courageous or not are around simple decisions; not hitting the snooze alarm, working out, having vegetables instead of fries.
How about you? Do you have the courage to go through that list and see opportunities to become who you were created to be or do you fail to grasp the responsibility of your own actions?
The choice is yours!
Joshua 1:9
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
Extremely convicting. Thanks for your perspective.
Sometimes I think courage is simply accepting the fact (and responsibility) that we are in control over every decision we make. No matter what we face, we decide how to react to it. That is a scary thought that a lot of people (including me oftentimes) would rather not acknowledge. There are many times that I find myself saying things like; ‘I had no choice’ or ‘my hand was forced’ or ‘It was out of my control’. To know that in each of those instances I DID have control – over MY decision – means each decision I consciously make can be considered an act of courage.
Thanks, Dave and God Bless!
Nate, thank you for taking the time to read and respond so thoughtfully.
I resonate all too well with your words around having no choice or hand being forced. Oftentimes, in hindsight, I can see that I did have a choice and I took the cowardly one.
I am learning to be more courageous each day and in that journey have a greater awareness of my cowardly decisions as well. I consider this progress because the awareness helps me to recognize the choices I have more often!
God’s blessings to you as well, Nate!
Dave Cornell