We often think of courage as a single act: running into a burning building to rescue someone, facing the enemy on the battlefield, fighting a bully at school. Most of us, when asked if we think we’re courageous, would say no. We haven’t done any of those things. There are many examples of courage in the Bible; Daniel in the lion’s den, David facing the giant Goliath, even Jesus going to the cross.
Sometimes courage is exhibited in ways we don’t notice. I remember when my kids were on a local swim team. There was a nine-year-old girl on the team, I don’t remember her name now, but she dominated her age group in the freestyle and butterfly. Everyone accepted the fact that she had a great future ahead of her, perhaps even as an Olympian. But somehow, in the next year or so, she was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Her limbs became swollen and misshapen, and her stamina decreased. She was unable to compete at the level she was used to. We watched in pity as she valiantly worked out with the team despite her pain and stiffness. I had the privilege to watch this little girl’s courage as she entered meet after meet, swimming the only stroke she could manage, the freestyle, and come in dead last every time.
If you look hard, you can see courage in people everywhere. It’s in the parents of a child with autism, who send him off to preschool for the first time. It’s in the man who donates a kidney to a friend so she can stop going to dialysis. It’s in the parents who sit by their son’s bedside while cancer slowly kills him. I see courage in the faces of those around me, the single mom, the unemployed father, the Down ’s syndrome child who competes in the Special Olympics.
Remember the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz? He thought that all he needed was courage, but he discovered that he had it all along.
Sometimes courage is doing the right thing when everyone else thinks it’s wrong. Today’s societal pressures seem to be increasingly hostile to our Christian faith. In my upcoming novel, Where Is My Sister, my main character must face her enemy and rescue the young women being held awaiting being sold on the dark web. In doing so, she exemplifies Queen Esther, who faced death by decree for being a Jew. We know the famous line, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.” Esther 4:14 NIV
Am I courageous? Not in the traditional sense of saving people from drowning or running into a burning building to rescue a baby. But I know that when I am faced with insurmountable pressure and tremendous odds of failure, I have a Savior who is behind me, before me, and by my side, cheering me on and helping me put one step in front of the next.
Brianna’s future was golden until a freak accident left her with a broken vertebra and a drug addiction. She completed rehab only to get kicked out of her perfect older sister’s condo after stealing pain meds. Now, she is homeless. The Women’s Leadership Program is everything Brianna has been looking for. Its dynamic director, Elizabeth, provides more than a roof over Brianna’s head. She encourages all the women in the program to be the best version of themselves. The accident robbed Brianna of a bright future, but the Program promised to return it — for the low price of unquestioning obedience.
At first, Brianna’s older sister, Morgan, had no qualms about kicking out her thieving, drug-addicted sister. It’s bad enough that her parents dumped Brianna on her before they took off in their RV. When her parents want Morgan to give them more information about this leadership program, it finally hits her that she has no idea where her sister is. It’s time to check out the Women’s Leadership Program and confirm that Brianna is safe. But making contact is more complicated than Morgan anticipated.
It’s as if her sister has disappeared.
Jane is addicted to coffee, purple pens, and her husband, not necessarily in that order. A self-proclaimed introvert, she enjoys the solitude of riding shotgun in Rigsby, her 37-foot motor home. But when they pull into a new campground, her favorite thing is to make new friends and find hangouts featuring local musicians. Her fantasy involves writing lyrics for country music songs and listening to them on the radio. In the meantime, she’ll stick to writing novels. And seeing as much of the country as possible.