Chapter 5 - Skill 2: Courage (The Wholehearted Journey)
Dec 01, 2021
Joel
START READING/LISTENING TO THE BOOK NOW FREE... @ joeljohnson.org
Ever felt paralyzed by the fear of dreaming too big? Fear not. This episode is your guiding light towards embracing courage, and who better to guide us than Jesus himself? We explore his revolutionary courage as a dangerous truthteller, inviting you to follow him into a deeper understanding of his audacious character. See how he maneuvered life's struggles with unyielding bravery and learn to unpack the connection between courage and a fulfilling relationship with God.
Struggling to muster the courage to move past your fear and hurt? You're not alone. In this episode, we reveal the secrets to accessing the true source of courage through a relationship with God. You'll learn the power of opening your heart intentionally to God and how that can spark a torrent of courageous living. We expose the strategies and tactics for navigating life fearlessly, just as Jesus did, and how prayer and surrender can aid us in living a life that God has promised, a life that's better and braver. Join us, and let's confront the fear of dreaming big together. Start living courageously today!
START READING/LISTENING TO THE BOOK NOW FREE... @ joeljohnson.org
Ever felt paralyzed by the fear of dreaming too big? Fear not. This episode is your guiding light towards embracing courage, and who better to guide us than Jesus himself? We explore his revolutionary courage as a dangerous truthteller, inviting you to follow him into a deeper understanding of his audacious character. See how he maneuvered life's struggles with unyielding bravery and learn to unpack the connection between courage and a fulfilling relationship with God.
Struggling to muster the courage to move past your fear and hurt? You're not alone. In this episode, we reveal the secrets to accessing the true source of courage through a relationship with God. You'll learn the power of opening your heart intentionally to God and how that can spark a torrent of courageous living. We expose the strategies and tactics for navigating life fearlessly, just as Jesus did, and how prayer and surrender can aid us in living a life that God has promised, a life that's better and braver. Join us, and let's confront the fear of dreaming big together. Start living courageously today!
Speaker 1:
Chapter 5. Skill 2. Courage. Where are you, god? I whispered under my breath. He felt millions of miles away. Intellectually, I knew that the Father and Jesus hadn't forsaken me, but currently His presence felt far from present. I was in a spiritual wilderness. I reassured myself that it had nothing to do with His love for me. I whispered. I am a beloved child of God. Jesus' dying desire was that I would come to know that I was loved as much as he by our heavenly parent. I declared under my breath this is the perspective I choose to believe. I am His beloved child.
Speaker 1:
I scheduled some time away to pray and inquire about what felt like a widening distance between me and God. I climbed into an old pickup truck. Sitting in the cab, I prayed God, is there something separating me from you? Is there something I am doing that is causing distance between us? I waited for a response but received none. I asked God is there a sin I am committing? Is there something I am doing that is displeasing to you? I waited Again. There was no response. No enlightened thought invaded mine. I received no serendipitous revelation. The only sound heard was that of the grumbling of my stomach.
Speaker 1:
I began going down a mental list of sins that were pretty common for a then 20-something male like myself to possibly be committing. Do you want me to let go of self-centeredness, lust, pride? I continue down the list, but nothing felt right. I am sure there were areas I needed to improve in, but I was praying specifically to hear from God. Usually, when I am hearing clearly, it is accompanied by a bit of an aha moment. There is a subtle, sudden shift of perspective, and I know that what I have experienced is a truth beyond me. Even when that truth is hard to face, it is always accompanied by hope, peace and the encouraging confidence that I can heal, mature, evolve and move forward. But there in that old cab, nothing.
Speaker 1:
I sat there, distracted by the field and trees in front of me, when it hit me. You don't dream big enough. It was not at all what I expected to hear or how I expected to hear it. His words were entirely true, but the frankness by which they were delivered momentarily troubled me. There were no undertones of shame or condescension, disappointment or anything like that. Rather, what made this statement so disruptive was the truth that his words exposed in me and the courageous candor by which they came rumbling into my mind.
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Through this kind yet forthright confrontation, he was opening my eyes to something I couldn't see before, that I hadn't allowed myself to dream big because it was something that I was deeply afraid to do. Why? Because dreaming big made me vulnerable to experience big disappointments, big letdowns and big ridicule if I failed. As a child, I was all too familiar with the pain that resulted from the high hopes I held my big dream of having a loving father and all that. Then a new thought arose.
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Maybe my version to dreaming big began with that disappointment. God's candid retort you don't dream big enough opened my eyes to see why I began dreaming average-sized dreams. I was attempting to insulate myself from ever experiencing those kinds of big heartbreaks ever again. God was courageously calling me out of average, asking me to dream, like him, big. I knew this would require me to push past the fear of feeling that pain once more and envision a much better life than the safe average life I was imagining for myself.
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Then Maybe you can relate For almost everyone. It's much more comfortable to dream small, achievable dreams, the kind where your chances of failure are minimal and largely free from the judgment of others. It's true, if you resist allowing your hopes to rise too high. Then you may mitigate the painful possibility of being let down. If you can muscle your expectations to a manageable level, then you may not be able to do it. Then you're less likely to feel disappointed if things don't turn out as you had imagined. Yet while settling down into a safer life may help you not experience the pain you once felt, it distances you from the life you desire deep down, regretfully.
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This inner posture of quelling your heart's hopes and fearfully dreaming small was the same one held by those Israelites whom, when God led them to their promised land, refused to possess it. They saw it with their eyes, but something inside of them was too fearful to take hold of the life God was giving them. If we are ever going to enter into the better life Jesus promised, we are going to have to face that fear In the cab of that old truck. God's disruptive answer helped me to see that, while my small and safe approach might reduce a few disappointments in life, it would also keep me from the life my heart longed for. If I was to free myself from this fear, dream bigger, enter that better life, I would need to grow much more courageous, and you will need to do the same. Jesus was the most courageous man who ever walked the face of the earth.
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The powerful didn't execute Jesus because he was too sensitive or humble or meek. They crucified him because he courageously opposed them, artfully exposed their corruption, all while slightly dismantling their influence. He was successfully flipping their whole scheme on its ear. So they did what benefiting leaders of corrupt systems have done throughout history they assassinated him. No one kills the tame lion. They're merely relocated to a preserved zoo or circus. But a wild lion who does not fear man is dangerous and has to be dealt with. Jesus is kind, caring and humble, but make no mistake, he's no cowardly lion. Jesus is quite dangerous and always has to be dealt with. And as Jesus was inviting me, then I am inviting you right now to follow him into a greater understanding of his courageous character, his assertive intentionality, troublesome truth telling and masterful maneuvering. You'll need these courageous skills if you're going to leave your hurt and fear and find your life. Jesus had such assertive intentionality. He was a troublesome truth teller. He didn't mind to tell it how it was, or to call a Pharisee a whitewash tomb. Not only that, jesus was a masterful maneuverer. He had perfect and appropriate timing, whether he was talking to the woman caught in adultery, lepers or children, or whether he was talking to a hypocrite or a Pharisee or someone who needed a little bit of extra something for their eyes to be opened.
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When I think back to that season of spiritual distance that I experienced, it was a knocking. It got my attention, it woke me up, caused me to open my heart, invite him into the discomfort of it all and gain greater clarity. Hearing back then you don't dream big enough was momentarily troublesome. It landed on me like one of those courageous confrontations from a close friend, a counselor or brave sibling, where they approach you about an annoying, off-putting or destructive behavior that you've obviously been doing, potentially even for years. If you haven't experienced one of these confrontations yet, I wouldn't describe them as comfortable, but the new awareness received through them is such a gift. As the proverb says, wounds from a friend can be trusted.
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Jesus wanted a better life for me. There was no way I was going to be able to transition into the next expansive season. He'd prepared dreaming small and safe. If I were to soar into the next, better season of life, I would have to dream much bigger. Continuing my average dream scheme would halt me from entering the life he promised. The courageous confrontation he prepared for me was not comfortable, but the awareness I gained through it was such an incredible gift.
Speaker 1:
Afterward, over the next following week, I looked up every courage evoking scripture I could find. For the next three months I meditated, memorized and prayed them over my life daily. Through this exercise I experienced such an internal transformation. Others began to notice the positive external effects. I stood up straighter. I was less apt to avoid difficult conversations and began allowing myself to envision the big things God might be planning to do with my life. In the appendix of this book I have included many of the courage filled scriptures and prayers I prayed over my life during that season. Meditate, memorize and pray them over your life, and I know you will experience the same big changes I did.
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Courage doesn't begin in our external life.
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No true courage arises internally, from your heart. To grow more courageous, we must open it to the most courageous human who ever walked the planet. Let's pray and do that now. Jesus, you live so courageously during your life here on earth. Teach me how to live and do the same. Reveal to me the internal schemes and strategies I employ so I don't have to experience the pain of my past. Set me free from this. I've released my failed strategies of self-protection and open the door of my heart. Search my heart and reveal to me where you are working in my life. Heal me, deliver me, make me whole and holy. By your grace, I turn from self-help alone and give my soul fully to you. Show me how to be more intentional, how to speak the truth boldly, even when I'm intimidated, and have the shrewd intelligence to maneuver through life as masterfully as you did. Teach me how to be courageous, like you. Now Make my heart whole on this journey you're guiding me on and lead me into the better life that you promised to give all who follow you.