Drawing the Word Courageous
One of my friends emailed me yesterday to encourage me about my upcoming run through the Grand. Freaking. Canyon. Because it’s real, people. In four days, I’ll be lunacy incarnate. It was all fun and cool and inspiring when it was weeks away. But now it's THIS SUNDAY. And everyone I run into has a story about someone who tried to run the Grand Canyon, whose legs got bitten off by rattlers or who fell into a hallucinogenic fog and saw Jim Morrison doing a spoken word version of Psalm 23.But, the email: My friend Laurie told me about her son’s homework assignment, which was to draw the word courage.So he drew a picture of a man climbing a mountain, and asked his mom, “Mom, is this courageous?”Her response was brilliant and beautiful. She said, “Yes, it is. As is running the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, and going to school when you don’t feel like it.”And I might add a few:Getting up in the morning to face another day with your special needs children.Or making that phone call when your feelings have been hurt.Or asking for help.Or calling your sponsor and telling her that secret.Or telling God you are not sure that you believe anymore.Or starting something risky.Or quitting something that is sucking the life out of you.Or creating. Anything.Or listening, or seeing, or waiting, or saying it, or showing up.Are those things courageous? Yes, yes, yes. Let me tell you that they are. You are.How would you draw the word courageous? What would your picture look like?Laurie’s daughter Bella drew this picture, because she knows what I’m going to be doing in a few days. Can you see me right there on the top of that canyon? Can you see that I'm smiling?
Be courageous, friends, because it's worth it. And even if your legs get bitten off by rattlers, it's better than living your life with fear in the drivers seat.We can be courageous because someone wrote this a few thousand years ago: Be strong and very courageous. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. We can be courageous because someone lived it.