Ask Fred > Career/Work > What is the essence of courage?
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Dear Fred
What is the essence of courage?
Fred's Response
You asked, "what is the essence of courage?" That is an excellent question. I feel the essence is faith. The kind of faith that made the old, sexton pray, "nothing will come my way that You and me can't handle, Lord." We have a caretaker who has tremendous courage for the average individual and she will tackle anything. After she had done a particularly difficult thing I asked her how she did it and she said, "God and me can do anything." Her faith was the essence of her courage. I think on the other end of the spectrum, men like General MacArthur who have tremendous courage simply felt that they had a fate and that fate was their protection. I particularly admire Dr. Ramesh Richard (RREACH International) for his quiet courage that allows him to go into situations like the Sudan where it is very dangerous. Yet, he goes based on his faith in the protection of God. You add something to that question when you say, "how can a person have courage whose self worth has ben beaten out of them?" I would say, "wake up and realize that your self worth can never be beaten out of you by human causes because your self-worth is God given. For example, let me mention three things: 1) you are created by Divine process. 2) We have been given a uniqueness that no one else has, therefore, we are essential to the completion of the mystery which we can call the jigsaw puzzle of God. And 3) we are redeemable by God first in salvation, then in multiplied events of forgiveness throughout our life; therefore, don't let anybody, including yourself, tell you that you have lost your self-worth. You cannot lose that. Now you can lose what psychologists would call self-esteem or self-image, but Christians shouldn't major on image or esteem. Our major should be on our God-given worth which no one can take away from us. Bless.
