All posts tagged courage
I'm not always wearing my full habit...
Or, to paraphrase Martin Luther, “God doesn’t save the penny-ante sinners. If we’re stuck being sinners, sin boldly!”
Living with a chronic illness — or, like many of us, with several chronic conditions — takes a great deal of strength and courage.
(Source: lifewithautoimmune)
Photo of the Day - The Daily What
You want to know what courage looks like? Truly I tell you, courage looks like this.
<blockquote>Two Libyan Air Force colonels who refused to execute an order to bomb protesters in Benghazi fled with their Mirage F1 jets to Malta, where they are presently seeking asylum.</blockquote>
Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage and wisdom moves the world.
(Source: citizenalien, via christianradicalism)
…the dark side of post-9/11 was of course the virulent reaction of many, including many Christians, to Muslims and Islam in general. There was even a fundamentalist minister on the West coast who on the Sunday after 9/11 said from the pulpit—- ‘I m an American first and a Christian second’. No forgiveness for those terrorists—- bomb ‘em back into the stone age’.’ When the minister, was questioned about this after the service, with one church member asking—- ‘You meant you are a Christian first and an American second—-right?” The minister, so to speak, stuck to his guns (or in this case his right to use them to retaliate) and said “I said what I meant, and I meant what I said.” Those were dark days, to say the least, and the Lord was not honored by such vitriolic remarks. What is true of course, is that a major crisis scratches beneath the surface of our consciousness, and reveals what our real default beliefs are, what our real feelings are, when push comes to shove. It was the beginning of a long dark road where fear-based thinking was to dominate our national decision making, and frankly I don’t think we’ve have gotten beyond such thinking yet. You see the whole point of terrorism is not to wage open war with a larger and more well equipped foe. The point is to strike fear into the heart of one’s enemy hoping they will colossally over react, and waste their precious blood, money and time chasing ghosts, at home and abroad. We are still busily doing that in various ways. On that showing, 9/11 was an enormous success for the terrorists. We ended up striking an enemy in Iraq that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden, was nowhere near his lair, and had no weapons of mass destruction, as it turns out.
Ben Witherington (via azspot)
Sigh. Undercover Nun has several comments.
To the West Coast fundamentalist preacher: Anyone who purports to be an American first and a Christian second has his or her priorities backward and needs to spend some time in prayer.
Fear is the unhealthiest motivator there is. Sadly, I believe it’s also the most common. The opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear. Fear eats at the soul, separates us from our infinitely loving God, and brings rage and hatred. Fear is the bite of the ravening lion, the currency of the Adversary.
Do you want to know whether the terrorists have “won”? Consider the indignities we submit to in order to take an airplane flight, because each person is now feared. Consider the x-ray machines at courthouses, schools, amusement parks, because each one of us is feared. Consider the rage and hatred directed toward all of Islam, because we fear those we don’t understand.
What happened nine years ago was dramatic and horrific. But you know what? Most acts of terrorism within the United States have been committed by native-born white men. Do we see such reactionary fear and rage at native-born white men? No, because we recognize the futility of this.
Undercover Nun submits that nearly all of the US reaction to the tragedy of 9/11 has been futile, and has in fact compounded the intentions of the terrorists responsible. Do we live in fear of another attack? Yes. Do we make decisions and act, motivated by that fear? Yes.
How much money and time and intelligence must we spend before we realize that terrorism can never truly be fought?
There is only one response to terrorism that can have a chance at bringing healing and peace. That is true listening, followed by repentance at our own part, and loving forgiveness. But on the surface, these seem weak and cowardly, though they show the greatest strength of all. And America can never look cowardly or weak, can it?
Undercover Nun prays that one day, America will recognize and model true strength and true courage, instead of the fear-motivated, chest-thumping, violent substitutes that we display to the world today.
(via azspot)
What is true strength?
“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” - Unknown
True strength, true courage, comes from places that look like foolishness and weakness:
- listening quietly to others
- loving another person, when it’s easier to fear or hate
- speaking the truth to authority
- speaking the unpopular truth to society
- accepting blame, cruelty, persecution on behalf of others
- refusing to dignify blame, cruelty, persecution with a response
- giving up what you have to someone else in need
- taking a deep breath instead of jumping in immediately
- biting your tongue and saying nothing
- choosing your battles wisely
- engaging with your fear, embracing it, and allowing it to heighten your performance without consuming you
- saying no
- praying
- accepting what the world throws at you and transforming it into something of grace and beauty
- listening to your friends beg you not to accept the world’s cruelty, knowing you’d rather not accept it, and accepting it anyway
- … and many other things.
Anyone else want to chime in?
(via peacerevelation)
Amen!
