Two pounds, five ounces. Not the metrics a parent desires to hear when describing their little boy’s birth weight. Seventy-seven days Benaiah Dew endured the NICU at a Nashville hospital until he graduated to five pounds, five ounces and was able to leave with his adoptive parents on a spring day in 2019. It Takes Courage (and God’s divine hand) to overcome being born in a bedside commode without oxygen for 18 minutes at 25 weeks, and this little “man cub” had it in abundance. All of us, in time, will experience moments when we are called to Take Courage, perhaps not in the life-saving manner that was required for Benaiah, but in some form of perseverance that alters our life in some way.

It is this perspective of Taking Courage, of altering our attitude to overcome an existing difficulty, that was shared with me recently. This past Thursday morning, my friend and author, Beth Madison, forwarded an article to me, confident that it contained valuable information related to this journey to cultivating the Habits of a Flourishing Life; but what she didn’t know (and God did), was that many of the concepts Margaret Diddams shares in her article Languishing: Take Courage, Take Heart, would reverberate far more deeply in my soul and point me in an unexpected direction to considering the flourishing continuum. Whether it is applied to Mid-Career Malaise, feeling Meh, or whatever circumstance you associate with languishing, Diddams’ encouragement to Take Courage should ring true for many of life’s less-than-stellar Defining Moments.

But how do we move from languishing to flourishing? What steps are needed to Take Courage? Diddams answers with, “Following scripture, modern psychology, and Thomas Aquinas, it may be that the ancient virtue of courage can move people away from languishing…I mean to act with the same courage at the root of encouragement—to be inspired to take the small first steps toward more hopeful thoughts, feelings, and actions. In several stories in the gospels, Jesus, when meeting people whose lives were turned upside down, told them to ‘take courage,’ ‘take heart,’ ‘be of good cheer,’ ‘be encouraged,’ or ‘go in peace.’” Jesus was not making a suggestion, but a command statement, “to act with courage.”

To Take Courage, as Diddam shares, “[is] a volitional act to gain or maintain a desirable, important, and morally relevant goal in the face of some form of risk, threat, or fear. Courage walks the tight rope between risk and desire…If we knew the expected outcome of a courageous act ahead of time, it would just mean plodding along until reaching our desired end-state. It does not take courage to finish a jigsaw puzzle.” So, if it’s not ingrained into our DNA, “why do some people seem more courageous than others? Here’s where Thomas Aquinas might have something to say. Courage, which Aquinas labeled as fortitude, along with prudence, justice, and temperance, make up the four cardinal virtues, the ‘hinge,’ supplying the connective tissue to all other virtues… Practice is the key here. He writes that we learn virtues through the imitation of others, as Paul calls us to be ‘imitators of Christ’ (Eph 5:1). But virtues move on to become ‘second nature’ through practice.”

We must practice Taking Courage? No one wants to spend more time practicing; we want it to be game time! But in cultivating healthy habits, the flourishing habits, we must Take Courage in the way Aquinas describes vital courage or fortitude. “Endurance has two habits; patience to do the right thing while waiting for the hoped-for outcome and perseverance [Habit of Resilience] to keep doing the right thing even if the desired end may never come. For Aquinas, patience allows us to bear sadness calmly so that it doesn’t overwhelm reason, while perseverance moderates the fear of weariness. They are not passive responses but habits to cultivate.”

The courage needed by tiny “man-cub” Benaiah to survive overwhelming obstacles may have been much more serious than us overcoming our Meh feelings or persevering through languishing moments; however, being Rooted in our faith, being dependent on a Loving Father, “helped [Margaret] to understand that courage can mean doing less, and Jesus, in asking his followers to Take Courage, is asking them to trust him in order to persevere.” Doing the work of cultivating a Habit of Resilience takes courage, but so does letting go and trusting God with the outcome.

Can you recall a time when you’ve been a witness to circumstances that required someone to Take Courage? Would you please consider sharing in the comments below? Someone may need to hear your story today!

Reference:

Diddams, M. (2022, March 21). Languishing? Take courage, take heart. [Blog post]. Christian Scholars Review. Retrieved from https://christianscholars.com/languishing-take-courage-take-heart/