The Courageous Way

I enjoyed hearing a speech delivered by Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court at a University of Texas at Austin event.  During his decades on the bench. Justice Thomas has been known as a man of few words during oral arguments, yet when he speaks I have found he has many good things to say as a God-fearing man and American.  His quality of character, faithfulness in labour and devotion to God make him a man I deeply respect and admire.  Those who speak disparaging of him may do so because he is principled and godly like Daniel of old who would not be swayed by commands of a king, the fickle favour of princes or criticism from holding fast to those self-evident truths, that men have been created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

In his speech, Justice Thomas urged regular people of the United States to be courageous to uphold the Constitution as the 56 signers, who with "firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence" mutually pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes and sacred honour.  While he spoke of being courageous in standing up for the principles founding founders held dear, I find the following quote a fitting exhortation applied to Christians to be courageous by faith in our Saviour Jesus to daily walk in love, the light of the Gospel and the truth of the Bible during our pilgrimage to glory:

"Each of you will have opportunities to be courageous every day.  Whether your calling in life is as a day labourer, a stay-at-home mom, a small business owner, an educator, an office worker, a judge, or some other endeavour.  It may mean speaking up in class tomorrow when someone around you expects you to live by lies.  It may mean confronting today's fashionable bigotries such as antisemitism.  It may mean standing up for your religion when it is mocked by a professor.  It may mean not budging on your principles when it will entail losing friends or being ostracised.  It may mean running for your school board when you see that they are teaching your children to hate your values in our country.  It may mean turning down a job offer that requires you to make moral or ethical compromises.  One thing I do know to be true, it will mean waking up every day with the resolve to withstand unfair criticism and attacks.  These are choices that we will confront that will confront you and you must decide whether to respond with timidity or with courage as the signers of the Declaration did.  It will of course not be easy.  Never is.  But if like me, you need a greater source of strength than yourselves, you will need to rely on your faith to guide and to sustain you through it all.  You will disappoint people you thought were friends and enduring personal attacks--as well as attacks on those you care about.  But if you stand, you will find that courage, like cowardice, can be habit forming and it will become a part of your life and a part of who you are.  And I may dare say it is liberating.  You will also be a living example for others to emulate."

God exhorted Joshua many times to be courageous in obedience because God had commanded him and would be with him, and we too can be courageous through Christ.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if courage was our habitual way of life rather than only in exceptional or extraordinary instances?  Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses who trusted in God spoken of in Hebrews 11, by God's grace Christians can be courageous to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and run with endurance the race set before us.  Our courage does not spring from being exceptional people, but because we trust and obey our awesome God.  This is true freedom!