The Source Of Our Courage

ONE MORNING, Ken and I were about to head out to our offices at Joni and Friends when he caught a look in my eyes and perceived that I had a physically painful day ahead of me.

He opened the front door, then stopped in his tracks. “Wait one moment!” he said, and ran back into the house. He came back with a large yellow sticky note on which he had inscribed a big capital C with a black marker. Then he placed it on my chest, over my heart.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“It’s C for Courage. You’ve got courage, Joni. I can see it in your eyes. You’re going to make it today. You’re going to do it, and I am praying for you. You’ve got the courage of Christ.”

Oh, my goodness, what encouraging, hopeful words to hear from my husband. As strange as it may sound, he and I are grateful for the disability, for the chronic pain, and yes, even for the cancer that invaded our lives in 2010. Why? Because we’re masochists who enjoy suffering? No, of course not. It’s because all of these things help us stay hungry for the bread of heaven and thirsty for the living water. They remind us that courage doesn’t flow from our own reservoirs of strength and character, but from the living Christ who makes His home within us. Our own wells of courage might be dry as dust, but the courage of Jesus flows on—leaping, sparkling, and fresh—like a spring-fed mountain stream.

Our bouts with physical or emotional suffering keep waking us up out of any spiritual slumber we might find ourselves in. Trouble and hardship are textbooks that repeatedly instruct us who we really are, and remind us that we aren’t the towers of strength or paradigms of virtue we sometimes like to imagine we are. Suffering sandblasts us, stripping us of our sinful ways, leaving us raw and exposed—so that we might be better bonded to the Savior.

The best courage in times of crisis isn’t the kind we siphon out of the tepid, shallow pools at the bottom of our soul. For one thing, that courage will never last! The best courage is the kind that has been channeled from heaven itself—a vast reservoir wider than the human mind can conceive.

Knowing God is ecstasy beyond compare. Walking with His Son, Jesus, is ecstasy beyond compare. Hear me on this: It is worth anything to be His friend. Anything. No matter what the hardship. No matter how long or steep the road.

The capital C Ken put on my chest that morning was intended to represent the word courage, but it was really more about the hour-by-hour, moment-after-moment companionship of God’s Son.

GOING DEEPER . . .

For my people have done two evil things:

They have abandoned me—

the fountain of living water.

And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns

that can hold no water at all!

Jeremiah 2:13, NLT

Think of fear and faltering confidence as bright orange road signs reminding us to tap into the limitless courage of Christ. The sooner we realize (and admit) our need, the sooner we can receive His provision of help and renewed hope.