Take Courage.

For the days when the numbers aren't adding, the ends are far from met. The days when the loads don't get any less, and grow like a monster and, despite your efforts, you are still on your last pair of clean underwear. The days when you find yourself frogging the whole mitten when you were two rows from done. Rip it Rip it says the knitter.The days when the leaking garbage bag splits open on the stairs. (Yes, that is exactly my day.) 

The days that never end, with diapers and spit up and mushy food and poop and too many time outs it's pointless now. The days that are soaked in addiction and discontent, anxiety and sorrow, betrayal and loss. The days that beat us down and demand we cry "Uncle" and tap out.

For the days when backs strain and jeans stain, paint spills and glass breaks. Days when knees are scraped and feelings hurt. When friends betray and strangers stare. Days that begin with a need for more than coffee and end with restless sleep. Days when the oceans seem wider and deeper and minutes longer than ever before and October seems further than forever away.

Take courage.

.     .     .     .     .

The man heard the Teacher would be near, crowds followed and had arrived, whispers of miracles -- healing the sick, paralyzed, blind.. Could it be true? Rumored to be at a small house, the man and his lifelong friends -- the guys with whom he would entrust his life, who had seen his pain and anguish and suffering and knew it well, who would look the fool if it meant helping their friend -- gathered their things and traveled to see this man, the Teacher who everyone was talking about. Crowds thick and unmoving, surrounded the Teacher on all sides.  So close to the miraculous impossible and so far away. Last bits of hope flaking away with the wind and his head bent low, knowing for certain this was his one last chance…and now, now it's gone. And then, the Ah-ha moment of moments. Friends thick as thieves and willing to risk it all hatched the boldest of plans. They gathered a mat and ropes and lifted this man, at the mercy of his friends knot tying skills, through the roof. The roof? He must have been thinking, They're all crazy! And Father, help me! Taking a paralyzed man to a second story with ropes and cloth and whatever else they could gather, they were risking his life. And he was desperate enough to agree. And the biggest risk of all: to lower their beloved friend through the roof, destroy someone else's home in hopes of a miracle, an answered prayer. Fear had to be striking deep in their bones as they interrupted this Teacher for whom everyone waiting and listened, would this man even care? Would he dismiss them? Would he turn them away after all their efforts, all their hopes dashed? This could all be for nothing.

Seeing this man, his desperate hope and his faith, the devotion of his friends and the risks they were taking, the Teacher did not object. No, but rather he spoke kindly and offered an unexpected gift. A blessing -- "Take courage! Your sins are forgiven!" (paraphrased from Mark 2:1-12).

.     .     .     .     .

Jesus knew. He knew that the wrongs of today, the unfair world, the tragedy hitting too close to home, however heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, pales in comparison to the real need. Soul healing. Jesus looked beyond today and saw eternity. He saw the man, the friends, the lame legs, and the desperation and without hesitation treated the most pressing of issues. He healed the soul. And he did heal the legs,  and eyes, and arms, and feet, and hearts. But first and foremost, first and most important, first and rightly, he healed the soul.

Take courage.

 .     .     .     .     .

And when we stress and strain and worry and shake our fists and pull our hair and cry and whine and wish everything was different, take courage. It's that simple. Yes, impossibly simple. Like the stray penny lying at our feet on the ground. We only need to pick it up, take it.

And we can, with confidence and boldly, because we know from whom the courage comes. From the One who healed the sick and saved the weak, who rescued the oppressed and let the captives free. From the One who knew the soul comes first. We can take courage because we know it comes from the One who has conquered it all. Because who really can heal a soul, forgive a sin, and offer life everlasting?

And long before this Teacher walked on water, walked the desert, walked his first steps, it echoed through scripture...

Moses to Joshua, seasoned leader to new successor: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid…for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." And again only breaths later, "Be strong and courageous…The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged." (Deut. 31:6-8)

The Lord to Joshua ( And Joshua must have been wondering what the heck he had gotten himself into!): "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous because you will lead...Be strong and very courageous. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go…" Joshua 1:5. 6-7, 9 (brackets mine).

David, once shepherd now king, to son and king-to-be, Solomon: "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you…" 1 Chron. 28:20

 .     .     .     .     .

The Lord knew his plan for the world, knew the price of pride and doubt and sin, knew the fallen place we would dwell...and knew we would need to take courage, and hold it tight. 

And again Jesus speaks to his disciples in the final days of his life. These unlikely men, a ragtag team of doubters, sleepers, worriers, and workers, these  men plucked out of the rigamorale of daily life and thrust into the greatest story ever told, these men who would lead the new church, a thing beyond their wildest imagination --for two thousand years we are still here. They had seen him speak boldly to religious leaders and false teachers. They had seen him heal the sick, the crippled and paralyzed, the blind and deaf; seen him feed thousands with scraps and leftovers. They had seen him not only calm the raging storms and seas with a word, but also walk out on those white capped waves. They had seen with their own eyeballs a man raised from the dead, not just just dead, freshly dead, but really very dead, days dead! In the words of CSI and SVU, rigor mortis and decomp had set in. And he walked out of his own tomb!

They had seen all these things, and more, and Jesus speaks to them. To these men who have seen the Son of God, seen more miracles than we could imagine, and he does not say, "You've got this!" exactly. He does not say life will be easy or that they are ready to do it on their own. 

He says, simply, "There will be suffering. Take courage! I have overcome the world!"

These men who had seen dead men walk, twice, needed to take courage. So maybe I might need to also, and you? 

Life is not easy. Life was never promised to be easy, or profitable, or smooth, or fun. There will be trouble. There will be suffering. And we can take courage. Just take it! Because the One who heals the soul has won the victory. 

And we are promised that in our strong moments, our courageous and very courageous moments, when we take courage boldly, timidly, tightly…when we take it, however we take it, that He, the one who set the world in motion, who saves and heals the souls, he will never leave us or forsake us, he will go before us, and go with us. We are not alone.

And more! The one who saves and heals and gives courage also has a plan. We are not haphazardly taking courage for a crazy ride he knows nothing about! There is a plan and it is for good and his glory, (Jer. 29:11, Romans 8:28).

And when we see eternity through and beyond today, courage is easy to take. 

And when we wonder, like Joshua might have, what the heck we've gotten ourselves into...take courage

.     .     .     .     .

For the days that tears run more abundantly than smiles, when loneliness is the status quo, when no one understands or seems to care. For when the bundle of joy is not turning into the picture perfect something you had imagined, when the baby won't stop screaming and your at your wits end. When the classes are harder than you thought, it's the first week and you're already behind. When family is driving you crazy and you have to love them anyway.

Take courage.

For the days when the world is crashing and planes are falling, when people are dying and crying "War!" For the days when we remember we will never be the same, when we count the years since life shattered and peace left and terror came. For the days when we cannot recognize the world we live in, or who we have become, or who we once loved or promised to love, or this life we are living.

"For I know the plans I have for you...

I will never leave you or forsake you...

I have overcome the world..."

Take courage.