Courage Defined: A Modern-Day Take

We grew up hearing about courageous people, whether they existed in real life or in fairytales. Regular people who found themselves wrapped up in extraordinary circumstances. Frodo of the Shire (really any character from Lord of the Rings, honestly). Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Martin Luther King Jr., Anne Frank, Harriet Tubman, Joan of Arc, the list goes on and on.

With the exception of Jesus, anyone who has ever exhibited a tremendous amount of courage was just like you and me. They lived normal lives, did normal everyday things, had real life problems. The only difference was what they chose to do about their circumstances, or in spite of them. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor in Alabama standing up for what he believed in, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott transformed him into a national icon. Anne Frank was a regular girl who wrote in her diary, but we’ll forever remember her name. Frodo was a Hobbit, boring in every sense of the word. He found himself in the middle of a sinister plot and decided to do what he thought was right.

Courage, as defined by Oxford Languages is:

"The ability to do something that frightens one. Strength in the face of pain or grief."

Courage isn’t just reserved for the people who made it into our history books. It’s a skill that we all have the means to develop and practice. The passengers of Flight 93 who prevented a terrorist attack in Washington D.C. had courage, but I couldn’t tell you any of their names. People who survive and escape domestic violence situations have enormous courage, but we don’t write memoirs about each of them.

My point is this: everyone has the opportunity to be courageous. It’s just a matter of choice. It has nothing to do with who you are and everything to do with what you decide to do.

Courage in the modern world is a bit different. Most of us in America will never be put in a situation where courage could mean death, imprisonment, or exile. We may not all get the same opportunities to stand up for what we think is right, but we all have countless opportunities to do things that frighten us.

Fear is as powerful today as it was hundreds of years ago, and most of us experience it without even realizing it. It’s was stops you from making a healthy change in your life or taking a professional risk. It’s what stands between you and the steps you would need to take to write a book, or move away from home, or pursue some far-fetched dream. But the fear of something can’t actually hurt you unless you let it. Courage is what we have inside of us that combats that fear, like a lantern driving away a shadow. Your fear could be based in past experiences, old pain and heartache. Or it could be plain-old fear of the unknown.

The important thing to remember is that fear can be beaten. In fact, it’s where we get our courage from. You can’t have one without the other. If you never experienced fear or pain, you’d never learn and grow into a better, more courageous person. That’s not to say that pain is good, but we can give it a purpose. Make it work for us instead of against us. The more we face, the more we know we can withstand, and the more courage we have inside.

There’s a creator I follow on social media (higherupwellness) that quoted a Bible verse on this topic, and while I had probably read it a hundred times before, it hit me in the face a when I heard him speak on it a few months ago:

“My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing.” – James 1: 2-4 (CEB)

The things we face in life are opportunities to build our endurance and test our courage. They are opportunities to do what is right for us, regardless of the circumstances that we find ourselves in. And when we practice courage and build our endurance for difficult times, we are made into better people. We are molded into the person we need to be, not only to face trials, but also to enjoy the peace and prosperity that awaits us on after we've weathered the storm.

We all have the courage to do the things that scare us. We just have to find it. It’s there, under the surface. Quietly biding its time until we are strong enough to access it. Until our endurance outweighs our fear. Until our belief matches our being. When you are ready, your courage will be there to carry you the distance.

I speak as a witness of courage in the lives of the people I love and from personal experience. It takes courage to try for another baby after a miscarriage. It takes courage to go back to school and get a college degree after having 4 kids. It takes courage to move away from everything you’ve ever known and start a career in a new industry with no promise of success. It takes courage to carry on after a life-changing diagnosis. It takes courage to live a life you’ll be proud of when it’s over. Which will probably be sooner than we’d care to think.

I believe that courage is a superpower, but I believe it’s one that we all are capable of. The real-life and fairytale heroes all had courage in spite of their circumstances, but we can each be the hero of our own story. You have the courage to start a family. You have the courage to become the best version of yourself. You have the courage to grow in spite of your painful situations, even though it hurts like hell. You have the courage to be a good steward of the life you’ve been given, regardless of what it gives you back. All you need to do now is choose to use it.

Bad things will happen. Whether in our own lives or in the world around us. We will experience pain. We will be fearful. These are facts of life.

But, as a very wise, old man once said:

“That is not for [us] to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” – Gandalf The Grey