Courageous people have different reasons for their courage. Sometimes a person, a group of people, or an entire nation are thrust into a situation. That situation often calls for a display of courage. Examples of this include: England when Germany was bombing it during WWII. Churchill championed the cause of remaining courageous no matter how long it took to beat the invaders back. The rest, as they say, is history.
In our country, in the early aftermath of 9/11 it took courage for many people to even begin to go on with their days. Again, people did do it. Understandably, they were not in the daily danger that the people of England were in the aforementioned situation. But in both of these cases, courage was made….or perhaps made, grown, and found.
When someone goes through a terrifying situation and reacts with bravery, the press or someone typically asks the person how they could make themselves go through it, and why weren’t they too scared to act. Often the person minimizes his/her own courage, shrugs, and just says ‘i don’t know, i just did it’….examples could include stepping between a gunman and your child, covering someone’s body with your own in the midst of a tornado, staying bedside in an ICU, going through multiple hospitalizations because of a serious medical situation, facing down cancer, and on and on.
For others it could be being courageous enough to make an effort once again, even though there is a strong possibility they will fail. It could be the courage to begin to trust anyone again, after being deeply hurt. Courage could mean clinging to your faith even though you are suffering, really suffering.
In all of these situations, the courage necessary to get through it grows, evolves and changes to meet the situation. We are more courageous than we realize. The ripples of our lives bring home tiny sailboats that we don’t even know exist. The courage we expend gives others strength as well.
So let’s keep pushing to our finish lines. It will be ok.
Believe Anyway 
New South Wales, Australia, is right now in the grip of a tremendous heat wave. There is great danger of fires. Firemen are standing by to do whatever possible to protect lives and property. Firefighters are very brave and courageous people. It’s only October. The fire season started early for us this year. We have been warned we can expect a very hot, dry summer with strong winds.
The wind and heat have been very intense this season here in Arizona, too. In one forest fire we lost 19 firemen all in the same day. Such brave, courageous men. I hope your hope is nowhere near any of the fires!
So far we’ve been lucky, Kate, and no fires have been very close to where we live. Yesterday didn’t get quite as hot as had been forecast. It was here only 36 C maximum. I think this is a bit less than 100 F. But in some other areas of NSW it actually did get quite a bit hotter, for instance In Sydney. People enjoyed themselves at the beach. Luckily none of the present bush fires came close to where people live, meaning all the bush fires could be kept under control yesterday. They had to keep an eye on about 45 bush fires as far as I know. Firefighters are always under threat when fires get out of control in very hot conditions. They have to be extremely brave people.
that is a lot of fire to deal with. It sounds like the terrain is very dry there, as it is in many of our forest communities in AZ. The fires get so huge and spread so quickly. Firefighters are so vry brave.
Thanks Kate.
Gilly—thanks so much too. Hope you are having a great day—kate
I’m often amazed and perplexed at the times/situations where I have more courage–or none at all. There’s no logic to it, apparently. God bless you Kate–love, sis Caddo
What a great way to put it! When I look at the patterns of my life, sometimes they look so illogical and random. Sometimes, if I look over a long entough period of time, there does seem to be a pattern to it—almost as though I accidentally did His will! God bless you too, my sis in HIm!
Oh, and I love that–“accidentally” doing (stumbling onto) His Will. YES, I love those moments, am so grateful–as sometimes I try SO hard, and may not see if I made, or missed, the mark…left wondering. It’s great when He taps us on the shoulder and says, “yep, you did real good there!”
i just love that concept of God tapping us on the shoulder. It is so sweet, lovely, and reassuring. xo