Courage - session notes:

Courage!
 
Courage is often used in conjunction with taking a stand for a principle, lifestyle, or cause. 
 
Definition – “The ability to do something that frightens one.” – originates from the Middle English (denoting the heart, as the seat of feelings): from Old French courage, from Latin cor “heart.” 
Courage is commonly defined as being motivated from the heart to do something brave.
 
Is there “good courage” and “bad courage”?
 
What types of courage are there?
Emotional courage
Physical courage
Spiritual courage
“Faint of Heart” – lacking in courage, lacking the power to act when action is required.
 
It is important to “encourage” one another because it fosters community, strength, commitment and initiation.
 
Courage is not about rights but about responsibility. You have more privileges than any people in human history. Protective rights are not the goal. Responsibility is where life has meaning and courage is the highest degree of acting in richness and responsibility.
 
Courage is not easy and it is not safe. Courage is not natural and it is not “gifted” – 
Courage is difficult and heroic and necessary to be more than we are.
Courage is a muscle and must be used or it will atrophy. 
 
Keys to courage 
Bold
Habit
Practice
Not backing away from a challenge – not timid or fearful
Take action
Initiate and take action - don't wait
Stay the course
Tenacity
Don't give up
Courageous patience
Consistent 
Take risk – 
Uncertain outcomes do not discourage those with courage
Dare to go forward
 
What is the biblical definition of “evil courage”?
 
Psalm 55:19 – “God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change – He will hear them and humble them, because they have no fear of God”
Amos 2:16 – “Even the bravest warriors will feel naked on that day, declared the Lord” – this is in reference to the judgement on Israel.
Romans 3:10-17 – “As it is written: there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; thee is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is in their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”
 
Question: "What is the story of Joshua and Caleb in the Bible?"

Answer: Joshua and Caleb are two Israelite men whose stories offer an example of faithful commitment to the Lord. Both men came out of Egypt with the Israelites through the Red Sea and into the wilderness. Joshua and Caleb were selected along with ten other men to explore the Promised Land and give a report to Moses and the people.

After a 40-day exploration of Canaan, the explorers reported, “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there” (Numbers 13:27–28). This report frightened the people (Numbers 13:31–33).

Caleb had a different attitude from the other spies. Verse 30 records, “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’” When the people complained that they could not go up to conquer the land, both Caleb and Joshua responded strongly: “Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh . . . tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, ‘The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them’” (Numbers 14:6–9).

God judged the people of Israel by making them wait 40 years to enter the land. He also promised that every person 20 years old or older would die in the wilderness and would not see the land with two exceptions—Caleb and Joshua. Why? “Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it” (Numbers 14:24; see also verse 30). Verse 38 adds, “Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.”

This promise came true. After the death of Moses 40 years later, Joshua led the people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Caleb received an inheritance in the Promised Land in his old age (Joshua 14).

The faithfulness of Joshua and Caleb teaches us that we are to stand for God even when others will not. When we do, God may choose to bless us in ways that will extend for generations to come.
 
Joshua 1:6-9
Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you, do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that yo may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the lOrd you God will be with you wherever you go.”

“This idea of self-distancing is practicing ways to remind yourself that “hey, like, this isn't the whole universe, step outside of your situation and gain some perspective,” said Stulberg. “One way to do this is to put yourself in the way of beauty and experience that “Ah” moment. For some people this might mean going to a museum and spending a day without distractions, looking at art. For others, it might be listening to really profound music without distraction. And for others, myself included, it often means just spending a day unplugged in nature. There is nothing like spending a day in nature for me to help me realize what's really important and what really matters and what I want to spend my time doing.
Listen to this episode above or read the full episode transcription here.

BP Notes:
The Existentialist’s Survival Guide – Living Authentically (Gordon Marino on AOM Podcast)
 
Soren Kierkegaard – Danish theologian, Christian, philosopher, and considered the father of existentialist philosophy. Born in Cophehagan 1810 died 1855. 
 

• One of his main ideas involves risk. Not to venture or not to risk is to take the biggest risk of life.
• Believes anxiety is the greatest teacher – today, it’s a symptom and needs to be medicated or removed. 
• Life is an ongoing process (not I have been saved by grace I can do whatever) but rather working out your salvation through fear and trembling
• We are vulnerable – “one drink can lead to alcoholism”
• If you don’t feel anxiety you are spiritless – anxiety is about our spiritual potential. Why try to escape anxiety because this leads us to being a fuller person and full of faith.
• The solution to anxiety is to sit with it, recognizes it can be dangerous but leads to the three selves
  • Concrete self – who you are now 
  • Ideal Self – who you want to become - get into med school, make the A, win the beauty
  • True Self – self you were born to be – Child of God

 
Depression today – not against medication but our threshold for pain, feeling, living life on life’s terms is necessary. Human predicaments that impact us all have been turned into pathologies – illnesses or a condition. It is normal to feel down.
 
Despair or depression – depression turns into despair when you have given up on the project or given up on the human condition. 

• Happiness had some to do with luck and fortune but was passing. Kierkegaard believed more in the disconnect between who you are and who you should be – his idea of less self-help, workshops or ethics but rather the need for a true identity in Christ.
• SK felt that procrastination was our greatest moral danger. Leading yourself to believe that the “right way” is the easy way…. This notion leads to moral compromise and dangerous decision making. 

 
“Knight of Faith” – the individual who has placed complete faith in himself through God and can act freely and independently from the world. The 19th-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaardvicariously discusses the knight of faith in several of his pseudonymic works (Constantin Constantius), with the most in-depth and detailed critique exposited in Fear and Trembling and in Repetition.
 
Authentic Living – SK

• Kierkegaard did not use this term but used “True Self”
• Self you are born to be – God’s design for your true self fits perfectly with your strengths, talents and abilities. 
• Destiny is not to “follow” our passions but to refine and practice the “passion” God has placed within us. 

 
Person without Guile – at home in their skin. Jesus said Nathaniel is a person without guile. Guile – the quality at being good at deceiving people in a clever way. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus told Nathanael in John 1:51, “you will see 'heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on' the Son of Man.”
 
 
Friedrich Nietzsche – born 1844 – critique of truth, faith and religion. Theory of master-slave morality and aesthetic affirmation of existence in response to the “death of God” and the crisis of nihilism (philosophical pessimism about the nature of human life).
 
FN was a desperate humanist and believed in the creative powers of the individual to overcome social, cultural and moral contexts in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. He drew inspiration from Richard Wagner (composer – Ring Cycle). 

• Believed in nothing matters – Nihilism – “The last man” the ultimate couch potato
• Also believes that anxiety and risk is worth it – (perhaps because there is nothing else to live for - BP)

 
Authentic Living – FN

• Act of self-creation – a sovereign individual. Create your own path – John Mayer
• Do what you feel – Anthony Robbins approach – strike your pose. 
• Rise above the crowd, self-discipline but an act of creating your way

 
Living Dangerously –
 

• Both SK and FN believe that dangerous living and taking chances lead to a fuller life. 
• Anniversary of D-Day – 1944 Eisenhower said most of you men will not be coming back - Normandy