Serendipitous Thoughts by Sugar Bear
"Be Strong and Courageous: Why Do We Need to Stand Firm?"
My Uncle Buddy taught me an old-school lesson while fishing: “Boy, when the current gets strong, don’t fight the whole river. Plant your feet, keep hold of your pole, and know where you’re standing.”
That sounds simple. But standing firm is easy to talk about and hard to do.
Paul told the church at Corinth, “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love.”
I’m telling you, that courage part can get tough.
We see courage in movies. We see somebody run into danger on the news. But what does courage look like for ordinary people like you and me?
Maybe courage is twenty seconds.
A coach once gave me an idea I never forgot:
sometimes all it takes is twenty seconds of crazy courage to make your move. I like that because faith is like a muscle. You don’t grow it by admiring it. You grow it by using it.
Maybe your twenty seconds is making the phone call you have been avoiding. Maybe it is buying someone coffee and listening instead of fixing. Maybe it is apologizing first. Maybe it is sitting beside somebody who is hurting and saying, “I’m here.”
But remember this:
when love has an agenda, it can stop looking like love and start looking like another program. People don’t always need our program. Sometimes they need our presence.
That is where Paul’s words come together.
Stand firm but don’t become hard.
Be strong but don’t become stubborn.
Be courageous but don’t become arrogant.
And whatever you do, put love underneath it.
That is a little like jazz. Faith gives us the beat. Love carries the melody. Courage is the improvisation the moment when God puts something in front of us and we have to decide whether we will play our part.
Follower of Jesus, you may be twenty seconds away from a breakthrough not because twenty seconds is magic, but because one faithful step can become the next faithful step.
Jesus did not stop at agreement. He said, “Follow me.”
So what is your move today?
Don’t wait until you feel fearless. Plant your feet in Christ, hold onto the faith, listen for the melody of love, and take the next faithful step.
Twenty seconds.
Your move.
God bless you and this ministry!
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