Someone once said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome it.”  Stating the obvious, heroes are people who are courageous.  A local story illustrates this point well.  Most, if not all of us, read or listened in horror as local news agencies carried the story of a young mother who pushed her two children off the Sellwood bridge last week.  Most of the news stories were focused on the horrific act of the mother, but while they focused on the villian my attention was captured by the account of the heroes.

Cheryl and David live in a home on the Willamette River.  David heard moans and sounds coming from the river and woke Cheryl.  They got into their boat and investigated the sounds finiding the two children floating in the water (the three year old boy drown, but his seven year old sister survived the fall).  David, in poor health himself, jumped into the dark, cold Willamette River to rescue the little girl and recover the body of her little brother.  Certainly, he must have been concerned about the water temperature, the darkness, the risk of getting out of the boat for someone he didn’t know.  He must have had reservations, felt some fear, but he overcame those things and reacted with courage.

Moses did not fear the anger of Pharoah just as his parents done at the time of his birth.  Is it possible that they did not respect the authority of Pharoah?  Could it have been that they were just reckless zealots?  We could answer these questions with “perhaps” if it were not for the biblical record stating that they acted as they did “by faith.”  They responded as they did because they did not focus on the one they could see, Pharoah, but focused on the one who was invisible, God.

These days are ripe for courageous heroes of faith.  These are days for people like us to go into the schools and bear witness to the God who pierced our own lives with the light of His love.  Now is the time for people like us to engage the people we meet and know in conversations about eternal realities and the presence of God in our own lives.  These are the days to recognize that courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome fear by faith!

Where are the people who will declare the testimony that Jesus died and rose again in spite of the social and political consequences?  Who are the people who are willing to go out into the darkness and drive it back with the light of the good news despite the ridicule of the world and the pious opposition from within the community of faith?  I know who they are!  They are you and me, right?

How about it, are you with me?

Love,

tim

It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger.  He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.

Hebrews 11:27 (NLT)