Do you have spiritual courage?

Faith
Written By Brosna Projects
 

I was blessed to be in Jerusalem over the summer. In all honesty, visiting Jerusalem is a life-changing experience. I thought and prayed about many things.

Our Lady’s Courage

One overarching idea that kept coming back to me was the role our Lady played in God’s divine plan.  

She really was outstanding to have such courage to say “Yes” to God. Granted you could say that since she was born without original sin, it was easy for Her. Yes and No. Yes because she was full of the grace of God, but also, no, it wasn’t easy for her because she is afterall human. She felt fear and trepidation.

The one thing that struck me about her courage was her decision to “go with haste to her cousin Elizabeth”. In my innocence or ignorance, I thought Elizabeth was down the road. Not at all! She was a cool 140km away! (see Googlemaps). That stunned me.

Our Lady – who was actually pregnant at this stage – travelled on foot or part of the journey on a donkey – to visit her cousin Elizabeth and stayed there three months. And then, travelled back to Nazareth. And then travelled again from Nazareth to Bethlehem which is 145km and nine months pregnant (see Googlemaps).

I thought of this young girl in a predominately male culture making decisions like this and overcoming her fear of the unknown. I mean, I think most of us would have been thinking – “being pregnant now, I better take care of myself”. That would have been the “prudent” thing to do! But our Lady didn’t think like that. She set out… she made decisions and acted upon them, despite the discomfort or the dangers involved. She didn’t wait for God to set things up in such a way that the things just happened for her (aka Elizabeth living down the road!). And this is the crux of the matter.

the divine adventure

What about us?

Are we willing to be that courageous? To step outside of our comfort-zone, to step into the unknown and take the risk? Or are we waiting for the right moment, hoping that circumstances will favour us to act?

Donald Miller in his book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” has an interesting take on this. He explains that God doesn’t want us to be just actors in our own life, waiting for Him to write our story. No, God wants us to be co-authors. He wants us to create with Him.

He wants us to ask and wrestle with the question that is the driving force behind every great story – What do I really want? And am I willing to go after it? Seems a simple enough question but it’s a crucial one.

Miller says:

“Fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; it’s also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.”

None of us wants to have a boring life. We’d like to think that our life overall is and will be a good one. And it probably will be. But what if your life was truly a memorable adventure?

For our life to be just that, God wants us to banter back and forth with Him, dream the next chapter – even argue with Him sometimes because we’re so passionate about the story we are writing together. Like our Lady, we can correspond to God’s will, are creative and proactive in making it happen and not just sit passively waiting for it to happen.

One small change

I propose to you one small change to your life then.

The next time an opportunity arises to do something that is out of your comfort zone – say yes! (omitting obviously anything that is morally dubious of course). Say yes to something a little out of the ordinary! It could be anything, but you’ll recognise it when it comes.

Be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Those nudges to step off your personal treadmill and walk with Him instead.

Don’t get caught in the rut of society’s treadmill that you have made your own: I have to work before I can do X or Y, or Sorry, I don’t have time to…. and on and on. And slowly and perhaps imperciptible, we close in around ourselves and our world becomes very small.

I have seen people’s lives race passed them because of some prized posession they were seeking for in the future. Don’t put off the small divine adventures that God has in store for you today.

You can be courageous today by trusting Him, being the co-author of His divine plan.  

Resources

 
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