"For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded, therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." Isaiah 50:7
All courage is based on the knowledge of the unseen: the unseen skill, the unseen friend, the unseen ledge, the unseen hope; and faith is the courage that bases itself on the knowledge of God. I do not believe that we see faith as a kind of courage; perhaps as a kind of lunacy, but not boldness or strength of character, and that is a shame. All courage is lunacy to everyone except the one who is being courageous; only cowards call the brave insane.
Perhaps if we Western Christians saw faith as a kind of courage (and not a kind of irrationality), it would fair better against our innate pragmatism and empiricism. It would perhaps also combat the so called "feminization of the Church" by energizing Christian men (what would reach a man's heart: faith as lunacy or inspid sweetness, or faith as courage?). When our faith, our courage, is based on the knowledge of the unseen God Who is there, on "the Lord God" who "will help me," then and only then are we the ones who can "set [our] face like a flint." The courageous man, the faithful man, is unswayed in his action, because he alone sees what others cannot, accounts for what others do not. People call such men mad; may we all be struck by such madness.
"Is it madness to trust
In the Lord of all?
Lunacy to grasp at
The Eternal Hand?
Is it crazy to be brave...?"
-Jon Vowell
All courage is based on the knowledge of the unseen: the unseen skill, the unseen friend, the unseen ledge, the unseen hope; and faith is the courage that bases itself on the knowledge of God. I do not believe that we see faith as a kind of courage; perhaps as a kind of lunacy, but not boldness or strength of character, and that is a shame. All courage is lunacy to everyone except the one who is being courageous; only cowards call the brave insane.
Perhaps if we Western Christians saw faith as a kind of courage (and not a kind of irrationality), it would fair better against our innate pragmatism and empiricism. It would perhaps also combat the so called "feminization of the Church" by energizing Christian men (what would reach a man's heart: faith as lunacy or inspid sweetness, or faith as courage?). When our faith, our courage, is based on the knowledge of the unseen God Who is there, on "the Lord God" who "will help me," then and only then are we the ones who can "set [our] face like a flint." The courageous man, the faithful man, is unswayed in his action, because he alone sees what others cannot, accounts for what others do not. People call such men mad; may we all be struck by such madness.
"Is it madness to trust
In the Lord of all?
Lunacy to grasp at
The Eternal Hand?
Is it crazy to be brave...?"
-Jon Vowell
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