Courage in your Christmas stocking

Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok.

“Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!”

Psalm 31:24

Usually Christmas stockings are full of small stocking stuffers such as candy and fruit, inexpensive presents and fun items. But if I could put one word in your stocking, it would be the gift of courage. Please write this word on a small card and place it in your Christmas stocking. Look at it often throughout the upcoming year and let the word be your inspiration when facing overwhelming odds.

While writing spiritual meditations for my friends in Zimbabwe, as they struggled with starvation, economic collapse, and many legalized acts of injustice from corrupt government officials, as Internet pastor and friend, I wrote this courage reflection for them on August 16, 2002. I offer these simple thoughts to you as a special Christmas gift. Please share your courage with others and freely distribute it among your friends. In this way, the gift goes on and on.

Courage helps us look problems in the eye, rather than look the other way. God wants us to live heroically and bravely. Courage is like a muscle. The more we use it, the stronger we will become.

If we cower in fear, our courage muscle will atrophy and waste away from disuse. To know what to do and not to do it is the worst cowardice, Confucius taught. An old Italian proverb reminds us it is better to live one day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep.

Great courage is needed by citizens in every country to confront injustice and familiar patterns of racism and destructive ways of doing things. It takes courage to feed your enemies, rather than use food as a political weapon. Only the brave will change old ways of thinking and being, while learning how to live with mutuality, respect, equality, and dignity. It takes courage to stop death threats, while only cowards commit acts of random violence. Courage is needed to stand up and speak truth, and needed to sit down and listen. Great strength and courage are needed when working together for finding peaceable, nonviolent ways to seek reconciliation, forgiveness, and restoration.

The specific Hebrew word used for strength and courage in today’s verse is chazaq. Chazaq is found here and in Psalm 27:14. God is our source of chazaq. Chazaq does not carry a passive grin and bear it attitude. Here it is being used as a verb, encouraging the one praying to be strong and confident while waiting alertly for God. It is the total opposite of cowardice. Chazaq is a bold word describing the believer’s confident courage that is only perfected while waiting for God. People of faith from every racial and ethnic background need this bold yet humble quality of mind and heart.

In the mighty power of God, be brave. Be strong. Take courage. Do not give up. God is in the chaos and storms of life, generously giving each seeker the courage, strength, stamina, endurance, perseverance, and fortitude needed for every situation.

God, hear my humble prayer. Bless those I love and myself with chazaq courage and strength. May my courage make the world a better place. Amen.

from “Living as the Beloved” published by Chi Rho Press

Used with permisson

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