Courage

I think that many people think that courage is the absence of fear. However, I believe that courage is not the absence of fear, but the belief that something else is more important than fear. Courageous people are not those that step out because they fear nothing. How can it take courage to do something that you would do any day of the week? Does it take courage to read the paper, or watch The Simpsons? Courageous people are those that are scared to death, but step up to the plate anyway.

But there has to be something set before them that makes it all worthwile. Its the judgement that something good will come from doing what you fear. Doing something scary for no real reason wouldn't make you courageous, it would make you a lunatic.

One of the best examples of a courageous person can be found in Hebrews 12:2.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Jesus went through one of the worst death's ever recorded, not to mention all of His friends, and even God turning their backs on Him. But He didn't do it for nothing. He did it for the joy set before Him. And what is that joy? Whenever I'd read this verse in the past, I though His joy referred to His sitting down at the right hand of God. But He was with God since the beginning. His joy, is us - you and me. His joy is to hang with us forever. Honestly, that just blows me away. And it makes me more brave, knowing that the God who went though the worst this world had to offer is with me and on my side through everything I'll ever endure. How can I fear death when Christ has already died for me? He's already gone before me, and If I know Him and trust Him, I'll always be ok. His courage can be my courage.

Here are some other great quotes on courage:

"Let us not misunderstand what courage really is. The absence of fear is the courage of the mad. Doing what is right in the presense of fear, is the courage of the noble." -Philippos

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear." -Ambrose Redmoon

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave." -Mark Twain

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." -C.S. Lewis

"Courage is rarely reckless or foolish . . . courage usually involves a highly realistic estimate of the odds that must be faced. " -Margaret Truman

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow." -Mary Anne Radmacher

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." -Alan Cohen

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt

"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage." -Lucius Annaeus Seneca