Issue 124
In some jobs it’s obvious that you need this quality. Soldiers facing physical danger, or health professionals making life or death decisions, definitely need it. If you are a leader, visionary or communicator of any kind, you will need to have this to overcome the difficulties. It is needed for large decisions and small decisions. If your work involves extreme demands, requiring endurance, you will need it and if you find yourself alone you will certainly need it. You need it to stand up for yourself and you need it to get down to work.
The fact is, that we are all soldiers fighting the war. We are all in the healing professions and all of us have a vision to communicate. Every day you make decisions and day after day you keep going. Sometimes you need to stand up for yourself and regularly you have to get down to business.
In order to work you will need this quality called courage. You may not think so, but it is a courageous act just to go to work each day (even if you work from home). Once there, you are in a spiritual war-zone even if you can’t see it. You’re called simultaneously to fight and to heal; to communicate a message and to make decisions. The continuous, relentless nature of a working life means that you will need the courage to persevere. Every day requires courage; such courage is not fearless. Courage is knowing fear, and yet overcoming it. Such overcoming of fear is not achieved by closing your eyes, gritting your teeth and hoping for the best. The kind of courage you need is a courage with a rational basis.
When Joshua was faced with a career of conflict he had every reason to feel a little nervous; Moses was an incredibly hard act to follow. The project before him was full of seriously dangerous challenges and hostile opposition. His resources were relatively small and notoriously unreliable and fickle. So God commands him to be strong and courageous, not just in this moment but every day.
Conversely, he is commanded not to be terrified or discouraged which would be the perfectly natural response in the face of such circumstances. But the basis of this kind of courage is not circumstances, at least not those circumstances. Joshua is told that the basis of his courage is because “the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go”.
The basis of your courage is not because you can do anything you set out to achieve; it is not because of the power of positive thinking; it is certainly not because you can overcome any obstacle if you try hard enough. Even though positive thinking, hard work and effort are valuable, the actual bottom-line is that the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. This was not just for Joshua, who had to conquer a homeland. Jesus made the same promise to his frightened followers. The manual for angelic encounters with humans must have had an instruction ‘start by telling them not to be afraid’. We are naturally fearful when every day we are faced with small or large challenges which require courage: the courage to speak up or be quiet; the courage to work with integrity; the courage to keep going or stand up for some small but important issue; the courage to reach out and help.
And every day the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go to work.
Joshua 1:6-9
6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Matthew 28:18-20
18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.”
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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