Courage for the Days Ahead

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" Courage for the Days Ahead " Written by Norman Peale

(Three principles to help you overcome uncertainty and fear)

" On a bitter, cold night one February I was walking in London, near Westminister

Abbey. That evening Londoners were all muffled up as they rushed toward the

underground or stood in long queues patiently waiting for buses. It was a

typical scene. Towering into the darkness of coming night were the Houses of

Parliament, and from atop them Big Ben, one of the most famous clocks in the

world, sounded its chimes.

Few people are aware that these chimes sound two lines from an old hymn: " So

hour by hour be Thou my guide, kept by Thy power no step will slide. " So it is

that the government buildings of a great nation founded on the Christian faith

tell the people hour by hour, that a person must have courage and that courage

is derived from the knowledge that God is with you.

A friend of mine told me of seeing the last will and testament of a rugged

frontiersman of the Old West. This will had obviously been made without the help

of any lawyer. Words were misspelled and his writing was crude. The will was

written on a rough piece of paper, but the thinking that went into it was sound.

Here it is:

" This here is my last will and testament. I ain't got no money to leave you,

nothin' exceptin' our old cabin, Old Buck (presumably a horse) and my two guns.

But I do leave you somethin' worth more than money:

1) A man's word that is as good as his bond.

2) Faith in the Lord Jesus.

3) Courage, so you won't be afraid of nothin' or nobody. "

This reflects the great American spirit that made this nation. The man had no

money to hand down. But what is money compared with integrity and honesty? Or

compared with faith? Or courage?

When I was about twenty-two, and had preached only three or four sermons, I was

invited to preach one Sunday at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. That was

quite an experience. To begin with, chapel at Wesleyan was compulsory -- which

wasn't good. It doesn't make the preacher more popular for the audience to be

compelled to be there. Moreover, at Wesleyan they allowed applause -- not in the

form of clapping, but by the snapping of fingers. If they liked your sermon, the

boys snapped their fingers. If they didn't, they rubbed their feet. I won't tell

you which they did for me. But to stand before a thousand boys when you are only

twenty-two years old yourself and try to preach them a sermon -- I'll never

forget it!

Afterwards, a grizzled old professor took me to his hourse for midday dinner. He

was a lovable character, and we sat by the fire that winter afternoon and

talked. When I got ready to leave he said, " Son, before you go I want to give

you something. I've given it to a good many young men. The fact is, I keep a

supply on hand. "

What he gave me was a little book by J.M. Barrie, his immortal essay on courage,

which I kept for many years. But when he handed me the book the professor said,

" There are many things you can live without. You can live without money, you can

live without health, you can even live without education. But one thing you

cannot live without is courage. So read this essay. It will help you build

courage for the days ahead. "

Now of course the wisest book ever written, the Bible, has a great deal to say

about courage. There is that passage in , which is the classic text on

courage: " Be strong and of a good courage; (what music in these words!) be not

afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee

whithersoever thou goest " (1:9). No matter what, no matter how many

difficulties, what dark clouds, what trouble, God is always with you. Hang on to

that thought.

Then there is a passage in I Chronicles which tells about King Joab of Israel,

who was about to do battle with the Syrians and the Ammonites. The king's

brother was with him, and when they had hastily deployed their forces against

the advancing armies, Joab said to his brother, " Be of good courage, and let us

behave ourselves valiantly for our people . . . and let the Lord do that which

is good in his sight. "

Now there is a speech worth its weight in gold! " Let us behave ourselves

valiantly. " Do you behave yourself valiantly? Or are you like those who whine

and whimper and crawl through life on their hands and knees, piteously

petitioning someone to make things easy for them? That isn't the way this

country came into being, and that isn't the way it will go on in greatness

either. " Let us behave ourselves valiantly. "

You have to have something on the ball to do that. But Christians are supposed

to be that way. We are supposed to behave ourselves valiantly and let the Lord

do that which is good in His sight. Behave valiantly and He will take care of

the rest of it.

" Well, " you say, " this all sounds wonderful, but how can I have courage? I don't

feel courageous. In fact, I am insecure and full of fear. "

All right. The answer is: think courage, act with courage, pray for courage.

First: Start Thinking Courage. We become what we think. There is a law of

attraction in this world where like responds to like. If you send out thoughts

of fear, what are you going to get back? Fear. If you constantly send out

thoughts of weakness, what are you going to get back? Weakness. If you

constantly send out thoughts of defeat, what will you get back? Defeat. But, on

the contrary, if you think thoughts of courage, then courage will flow to you.

The more courageous your thinking, the greater the results will be.

Courage, like money in the bank, is something you lay up. You just don't pluck

courage out of the air. You develop courage; you grow it. The flowers we enjoy

had to grow from bulbs or seeds. They didn't just spring out of the ground fully

formed. It is the same with courage. You have to grow it, develop it, nurture

it, step it up. Then, when crises come, as they will to every human being, you

will instinctively act with courage. And by acting with courage in a crisis you

may save your whole life and your whole future.

So if you want courage for the days ahead, think courage until you become a

courage thinker. Make up your mind that, as the old frontiersman put it, you

won't " be afraid of nothin' or nobody. " This isn't easy. But the first rule for

having courage is to think courage.

And the second role is to act courageously. When Churchill died, people

remembered significant things about him. One, in particular, was his philosophy

of living. Churchill said, " Live dangerously. Take things as they come. Dread

naught and all will be well. "

I read, a while ago, a biography of Whymper who, on July 14, 1865, became

the first man to successfully climb the Matterhorn. He was a young English

artist who had been commissioned by a London publisher to sketch Alpine peaks.

Whymper had developed an almost obsessive ambition to scale the Matterhorn's

steep, icy peak. In four years, he made six unsuccessful attempts. Then, on the

seventh, he reached the top.

With Whymper that day there were three other Englishmen and three Swiss guides

-- a party of seven in all. They had achieved the heights; they marveled at the

breathtaking view; they put up an improvised flag; they were happy. They had

conquered the Matterhorn.

On the way down, one of the Englishmen slipped and fell against a Swiss guide,

causing the guide to also lose his foothold. They plunged downward, dragging the

two other Englishmen -- to whom they were attached by rope -- and themselves,

tumbling down four thousand feet to their deaths. This left Whymper and the two

other guides, Taugwalder and his son, also called . The Taugwalders

froze with terror. Here is Whymper's description of what followed.

" The young man did nothing but scream and sob, 'We are lost! We are lost!'

Fixed between the two, I could neither move up nor down. I begged young to

descend, but he dared not. Unless he did, we could not advance. Old became

alive to the danger, and also cried out, 'We are lost! We are lost!' The

father's fear was natural -- he trembled for his son; the young man's fear was

cowardly -- he thought of himself alone.

" At last old summoned up his courage, and changed his position to a rock

to which he could fix the rope; the young man then descended, and we all stood

together. For more than two hours, I thought every movement would be my last;

for the Taugwalders were in such a state that a slip might have been expected

from them at any second. About six p.m., we descended to the ridge leading to

Zermatt, and all peril was over. "

What an experience! Although Whymper was too modest to say so, this was

undoubtedly a case of one man's courage saving three. The other two went to

pieces, but Whymper, facing possible imminent death moment by moment for two

hours, held steady. Whatever his feelings, he could still act with courage. He

seems to have known this so well that no question about it even entered his

mind. Act as though you have courage and you will have it.

For every one of us, at some time or another, the going is going to get very

tough. But you have it in you, by the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to

do what you are supposed to do. So first is to think courage. Second is to act

with courage. And third is to pray for courage. I believe a person should pray

for courage as he prays for his daily bread. God will give it to you, because He

will give you Himself.

A few years ago, at a prayer breakfast in Washington attended by the President

and Vice President, Supreme Court Justices, members of Congress and others,

General Harold K. , Chief of Staff of the United States Army, related an

instance from his life.

In Korea, General found himself in charge of a small group of American

fighters holding a dreary stretch of deserted road to cover a retreat. Just " a

lonely commander " he was, as he describes it, fearful for his men's safety,

wondering if he could carry out his assignment and still give them a chance to

survive.

" I was very troubled, " he said, " so I just shut my eyes and talked to God, right

there on that cold, frozen road. I asked His help. And out of the still of the

night, as if from a great distance, came God's voice saying, " Be strong, have no

fear, I am with you. " ' From that moment he had no fear, only a deep sense of

peace. And he and his men had the courage they needed to fight their way out of

that situation.

" Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for

the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. " Let us therefore

behave ourselves valiantly and courageously. "

Copyright June 2003, Positive Thinking Magazine, a Guideposts Publication.

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