Midweek Musing- January 14, 2026

Have Courage (Even When It’s Hard)

Each week, at the end of worship, I typically offer the same benediction. It starts, “Go in peace. Have courage.”

And every time I say it, a small part of me wonders if that simple phrase, “Have courage” makes me sound crazy. Certainly, many would say it makes me naïve considering the world we live in.

Because let’s be honest courage is not easy. It never has been and may be more difficult now than it has been in a long time.

I mean our world is so divided. Wars and rumors of wars. Mistrust, prejudice and hatred. And so much uncertainty.

In fact, the truth that we live in a world of uncertainty is the only thing that I’m certain about.

The news cycles move faster than our minds, let alone our hearts can process.

And it impacts our daily lives and routines.

Conversations often feel sharper. Relationships feel more fragile.

And fear, born from all of this, has a way of slipping quietly into the background of our days—until it begins to consume us.

And it occurs to me that courage in the face of such challenges is a daunting task.

I recently listened to an NPR podcast which focused in large part on courage. And one image from the show stuck with me.

The host of the show mentioned the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. You remember him, the trembling lion who has convinced himself he lacks courage. This lion is desperate for someone else to magically give him what he believes he does not have.

Yet as the story unfolds, we realize something important: the courage he seeks is already within him. He has been brave and courageous all along. He just never saw it and certainly did not believe it.

What matters just as much is this: the lion was unable to discover his courage alone. He needed companions. Encouragement. A shared journey with others who helped him learn how to claim what was inside him.

Those lessons feel true to me. And the lesson was not just about courage, but about faith as well.

Now one of the great misconceptions about courage is that it means being fearless. But courage has never meant that. Courage means acting with fear, not without it.

As Mark Twain once wrote, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”

There are statistics often cited by psychologists suggesting that the overwhelming vast majority of the things we fear never actually happen. Our minds are incredibly creative when it comes to imagining worst-case scenarios. We rehearse conversations that never occur. We brace for outcomes that never arrive. We carry anxieties that exhaust us long before anything ever comes to pass.

Fear, it turns out, is not a reliable narrator.

And yet, even though our minds know this our fears still feel real. Sometimes paralyzing real. I know it does for me.

Thinking about this made me think back to high school when fear took a very specific and personal form: the telephone.

Yes, the telephone.

Not a cell phone but the home telephone which was attached to the wall.

You see there was a time when asking a girl out required picking up a landline phone, dialing a number you had memorized, and hoping—praying—that the person who answered was not her father.

Now could I have asked this young lady out in person? Theoretically yes. Practically though, absolutely not. That was far too terrifying. The phone at least offered some emotional distance and safety if she laughed aloud at my question.

So, to prepare for the call I would pace in my bedroom. Rehearse what I would say. Hang up once or twice before the call went through. My courage wavered not because the risk was enormous, but because rejection felt unbearable.

Looking back, I laugh at myself.

And while the fear felt different then; the way it grips us hasn’t changed much at all.

So how do we face these fears of ours? I have some ideas or maybe better stated a plan that we all might consider.

Step One: Name and Claim Our Fears

1 Peter 5:7 says we should: “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”

 Of course, to do that we have to admit what those anxieties and fears are.

Friends, if we are ever going to have courage, the first thing we must do is name what frightens us.

I believe that fear loses much of its power when it is spoken aloud. When we name the fear, we stop letting it operate in the shadows and expose it to the power of the light.

Scripture is full of moments when God’s people name their fear. The Psalms do this beautifully. And verses of lament we find though out scripture are not a lack of faith; it is an act of trust. It assumes God is safe enough to hear the truth.

Naming fear does not make us weak. It makes us honest. And honesty is the first step needed for courage to begin to grow.

Step Two: Prepare, Equip, and Lean on Community

Ok yes, I know these are a series of steps, but they work best put together.

As I already mentioned with the Cowardly Lion, gaining courage never happens in a vacuum.

None of us are meant to face fear alone.

We are strengthened by community, by those people who remind each of us of who we are when we forget. People who listen. People who stand beside us when our knees shake. People who say, “You don’t have to do this by yourself.”

Ecclesiastes reminds us “Two are better than one… For if they fall, one will lift up the other.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9–10)

This is one of the quiet yet marvelous gifts of the church. At its best, the church is not a place where everyone has it together. It is a place where people show up together—with doubts, fears, anxieties, hopes; and then borrow courage from one another when necessary.

And beneath it all, holding us steady, is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Scripture calls the Spirit our Advocate, our Comforter, our Helper. The Spirit does not remove fear, but the Spirit empowers us to move forward anyway.

Courage, then, is not self-generated grit. It is communal strength, Spirit-filled resolve, practiced over time.

Step Three: When the Moment Comes, Step Up and Step Out

This step is where the rubber meets the road.

It is where courage asks something of us.

There comes a moment often quiet, yet unmistakable, when an opportunity presents itself. A chance to speak when silence would be easier. A chance to act when stepping back feels safer. A chance to love, forgive, or risk vulnerability.

Courage is not waiting until fear disappears. Courage is choosing faith in the presence of fear.

Over and over in Scripture, God’s message is not “Be unafraid because nothing bad will happen,” but “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” God’s presence—not certainty—is the promise.

Back in the Old Testament we read in the Book of Joshua: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous… for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

And in the New Testament we read, “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

These texts remind us that fear does not come from God. However, when we do face these fears the gift of the Spirit presence equips us to move forward anyway.

Folks, that presence changes everything.

I nearly ended this Musing here but after letting it sit a bit, I felt I needed to add some closing words of clarification and especially of hope.

See when I say, “Have courage,” I do not mean, “Try harder.”

I mean, “You are not alone.”

I mean, “You already have more bravery than you think.”

I mean, “Lean on your community.”

I mean, “Trust the Spirit.”

I mean, “When the moment comes, step forward in faith knowing God is with you in life and in death.”

And if you struggle with courage—know this: so, do I. Courage is not something we achieve once and for all. It is something we practice, again and again, together.

So may we name our fears.

May we support one another.

May we step up when love calls us forward.

And may we remember that the God who walks with us is already present—every step of the way.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia Amen.