THE MOTIVATION TO WALK WITH COURAGE

We are in need of a courageous generation.  Regardless of social status, education level, or economic postures, men and women are being pelted with discouragement. Let me say it one other way.  We are becoming dis-couraged.  Courage is being terrorized.

We face dis-courage on many fronts day by day.  Events intimidate.  Circumstances confuse.  Even relationships take significant hits.  There is ample reason why we should address this plague that pulls hearts of courage down, down, down.

However, this is clearly a spirit issue.  This means it is a Spirit opportunity.  The way to take the dis away from discourage and reclaim the courage dynamic is through compassion.

In cultivating compassion we draw from the wholeness of our experience--our suffering, our empathy, as well as our cruelty and terror.  It has to be this way. Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded.  It's a relationship between equals.  Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others.  Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity, insists Pema Chodron.

The motivation to move us to walk with courage is to be driven by compassion.  We hear fantastic stories of rescues from burning cars by passers-by who risked serious injury because compassion drove them to courage.  Soldiers risk life and limb due to the same; they care deeply about those under oppressive governments.  Kidney donors move with strong courage due to compassion.

Too much of society cowers in self-protective fear.  Relationships remain wounded. Goals seem to be dismissed.  Drive yields to neutrality.   And our fire suffers from being anemic due to things that didn't pan out.

Maybe we need to recover from something more than alcoholism.  Maybe we need to a good shot of courage to blast away the dis-couraging enemy.  Maybe we will find a muscle for our task when we develop a heart for the hurting, the endangered, and those at severest risk.

We can do this.  We can overcome complacency.  We can move with bravery.  We will toss out the dis and step up with the original word...courage.  Yes...we will.