“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die … The paradox is the whole principle of courage; even if of quite earthly or brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and he will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.”
G. K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy; The Romance of Faith — pg. 136-137
God’s demand of Joshua to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1) reminds us that God’s worth is such that it is better to perish courageously fighting for God while defending His character than to quail before His and our enemies. The same is true of our professional lives today. It is better to value God’s name so highly that one is willing to take courage in hand and make shipwreck of their career at the threat of the enemies of God in order to defend God’s name from their insult and depredations.
To few are willing to risk all for the honor of the great name of the Lord Christ, preferring to play it safe so that they can continue to be part of the con.
