Courage takes different forms

When courage is talked about, it is usually the blustery type that wants to fight everyone in bar rooms. The quiet, everyday courage many people fight in the face of grinding adversity is rarely celebrated. That kind of courage often is overlooked in favor of "masculine" and "glamorous" courage, such as movies and bar room talk. We see the fruits of this supposed courage today in ghettos with gun violence at a tragic level with young people dead, and families forever torn apart by dead loved ones.

People fighting disabilities in wheelchairs and blindness with dignity, people who can smile in the throes of black depression, people who fight in face of popular opinion at the expense of relationships, business, and security,  people who punch in to work everyday for two jobs, people who stick together to raise families despite poverty and ambition, show courage.

People such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King were not explosive tempered people quick to fight physically, but faced down violence and threats against overwhelming odds in make positive change without resorting to their enemies' level, but rather love. We need more of that courage to take root today.

A Pastor's Surprising Rebuke

I read an article where a pastor expressed disappointment that no one asked him his name when he visited a church while on vacation. Being a pastor, I thought he would give his fellow clergyman a break, since he should know how tough it is being in pastoral ministry. After all, many fault churches as being cliquish and unwelcoming to "outsiders." He went on to state that know one else asked his name, or made him feel welcome.

It reminds me of the phrase "if you want a friend, be a friend." Perhaps he could have initiated the contact, or put himself in their shoes if the positions were reversed. Sometimes we get wrapped up in life and seeing friends we don't always acknowledge or recognize another person in our midst that needs a hand, a voice of encouragement, or a simple "hello." As an introvert myself, this is not an issue to me, as I prefer focusing on worship, rather than socializing that I find sometimes contrived or uncomfortable.

I hope he remembers his lesson when he returned to his own church, and that newcomers present and sought greetings and were not recognized, were more forgiving than he.