Courage

What is courage?

 Is it standing up to a group of bullies?

Is it walking on the railing of a skyscraper without a net?

 Is it stopping army tanks with bare hands?  

Courage is all that.

It is also a girl in her 20's speaking before a crowd of about 70 people saying, “I come from a broken family. My parents now each have a family of his/her own. I am living with neither my father nor my mother.”

This I witnessed from second-row pew in church one Sunday. The girl who answers to a whimsical name, Cute (a pretty head-turner in person), behind the pulpit was everything but whimsical. In fact, she packed pure courage in her slim, fashionably-dressed frame.

Then she narrated how desolate and lost she was when her parents separated. She dug deep into the sad tale of circumstances—how the family she thought was made of invulnerable stuff was ripped apart; how she was welcomed into the home of an equally young Christian cousin who has a home of her own, with a caring husband and very young children. 

To lay bare one's pain in public could result in dreadful reactions: pity, humiliation, shame, and maybe even ostracism.

But Cute braved all that, unmindful of what people would say. She spoke only to honor the God of grace who continues to help her nurse her pain and come to terms with the harshness of life.

She got none of the adverse reactions the world outside reserves for stories such as hers. Inside the church were fellow believers of the greatest Analgesic of all. He not only takes away the pain, He gives relief that no earthly panacea ever invented can deliver. 

I am sure everyone felt her heart—a heart that beats for a faithful Savior who walks with her, holds her hand, and picks her up when she trips to the ground.

Cute's testimony lasted no more than six minutes, but it concretely demonstrated courage at is purest.

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Photo 3: Joe Galvez