Celebrating courage

 
It's time to celebrate courage. A new year is here and courage is in great demand. We all need it, we all admire it when we find it. Courage to move forward in face of tragedy and loss. Courage to face the same tasks and demands every day. Courage to know something about good when evil entices into giving up. Courage to think independently when our highly media-driven world draws us into just floating along. Courage to be faithful and principled. Courage to love in the face of divisiveness.
 
Do you think that some people have more courage than others? It seems that way. You might hear or read in biographies or biopics about the extra-ordinary courage of pioneers who were able to think new thoughts, to invent, create or envision something that moved humanity forward in unforeseen ways, facing resistance in some form, always. The pioneers in the fields of social justice, science, religion, health care.
 
Barbara de Angelis wrote that “we don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” Anything spiritual is realized and demonstrated by going against the concept of matter as the basis of existence, not going along with it. Jesus Christ lived a life of pure courage. He introduced the daring concept of one universal God at a time of ecclesiastical tyranny and political oppression, and he went back to infinite Mind for big doses of courage, every day, it seems to me.
 
It is Jesus Christ who taught us all about courage as a divine quality, not a personal gift. Courage is divine – and because it is divine, it is spiritual, accessible for everyone, and impartial. True courage is moral courage, and it’s effect is always good. Courage doesn’t move from the inside out or is not even a personal achievement: It is everywhere.
 
This divine courage enables one to find the power of honesty, the strength to admit a mistake, the patience to keep silent when ridiculed, the intelligence to reject a medical diagnosis, the commitment to good even if this might mean a temporary disadvantage, the resilience to keep on nursing a patient day after day, and the strength stay on a case as long as it takes. This divine courage is never depleted because it is refreshed moment by moment through our divine Cause. This divine courage keeps us on the upward way when grief wants to bring us down or a physical challenge claims to stay instead of to leave. Divine light and empowerment present courage as a gift to you - an infinite resource of supply, hope, and joy, every day. Sometimes the quiet joy that is just enough to nourish and sustain you for one day.
 
We can use our gift of courage today, a courage unimpressed by conflict or opposition to good. Divine Love has millions of ways in which to express and grant us this courage and see good in action. We will always have just the right portion of courage we need. With courage we rise to see any situation from God’s point of view, in which obstacles dwindle and disappear in front of the presence of divine Love, the only presence in reality. Here we feel the power and joy of being at one with God.

I am sharing with you my favorite article on courage, entitled "What if?" by Paul Stark Seeley. Already the title is an inspiration, right?
 
Courage is truly "undaunted by strife", as a poem from the Christian Science Hymnal has it - it is divine. 
 
With this hymn I am wishing you a super happy year with a maximum of good!
 
In mercy, in goodness, how great is our King;
Our tribute, thanksgiving, with glad hearts we bring.
Thou art the Renewer, the Ancient of Days,
Who givest, for mourning, the garment of praise.
 
We thank Thee for work in the wide harvest field,
For gladness that ripens when sorrow is healed;
Made strong with Thy goodness that meets every need,
We gather the fruit of the Sower's good seed.
 
Dear Father and Saviour, we thank Thee for life,
And courage that rises undaunted by strife,
For confident giving and giving's reward,
For beauty and love in the life of our Lord.
 
(Hymn. 150:1-3)