Everyday Courage

Remember Dorothy helping the Cowardly Lion find courage in the Wizard of Oz? In the end, the message for all the characters was that the attributes they were seeking resided within them.

What does it mean to be courageous? It is demonstrated regularly by our military personnel in Afghanistan on patrol and during the heat of battle. But what about every day courage?

I keep thinking about an elderly woman I visited two weeks ago who has leukemia. When she first let me know about her diagnosis the words were accompanied by tears. Only a year before her husband died of cancer which was only discovered after dogged persistence by the family. He was gone in a few months and she wondered if this would be her fate.

After that initial dismay she has been remarkably strong, spiritually. Although treatment has made her physically weak, she continues in her own home and has resumed some of her hobbies. When I visited, we laughed together and talked about the birds that come to her feeders. A neighbour called recently to say that a Great Horned Owl was in his backyard and she huffed her way down the street, unwilling to let this unusual sighting go by.

She was very grateful for our conversation and the prayer which concluded the visit. She had tried to deter me from coming in the first place, because "really, I'm doing okay." As is so often the case, I figure I got more from this encounter than the person I saw. Without question, this is courage informed by Christian faith. Christ is the one we seek and the one who is already within us.