Gifts of the Holy Spirit: The Gift of Courage
Speaker Notes
Joshua 1:9
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Matthew 28:20b
… And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Alice Mackenzie Swain “Courage” quote:
“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go;
it is fragile blossom that opens in the snow.”
Dr. Fred B. Craddock entire quote (in an address to ministers):
To give my life for Christ appears glorious.
To pour myself out for others... to pay the ultimate price
of martyrdom -- I'll do it.
I'm ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory.
We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000
bill and laying it on the table.
"Here's my life, Lord. I'm giving it all."
But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the
bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters.
We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents
there.
Listen to the neighbor kid's troubles instead of saying,
"Get lost".
Go to a committee meeting.
Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home.
Usually giving our life to Christ isn't glorious.
It's done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time.
It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it's harder
to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.
Link to the Fred Craddock Collection, part of the Media Collection
of the Candler School of Theology, part of Emory University
http://candler.emory.edu/RESOURCES/MEDIA/collection.cfm
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel quote:
The teaching of Judaism is the theology of the common deed. The Bible insists that God is concerned with everydayness, with the trivialities of life. The great challenge does not lie in organizing solemn demonstrations, but in how we manage the commonplace. The prophet’s field of concern is not the mysteries of heaven, the glories of eternity, but the blights of society, the affairs of the market place. He addresses himself to those who trample upon the needy, who increase the price of grain, use dishonest scales, and sell the refuse of corn (Amos 8:4-6). The predominant feature of the biblical pattern of life is unassuming, unheroic, inconspicuous piety, the sanctification of trifles, attentiveness to details.
[Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom, 102-103, emph. in orig.]
David Thorp was the Director of Catholics Come Home for the Archdiocese of Boston