Courage

I watched a program on CBS called What would you do? It's a program using a Hidden Camera to pose such situations/questions as: What if you were walking through a park and you saw a couple get into a heated argument? The man didn't hit the woman, but seemed to be on the edge of physical violence and pushed her. Or, imagine if you were in your neighborhood convenience store, and you saw a brazen shoplifter at work. The shop owner's not a friend, but she's always been friendly to you. What would you do? Would you think you had an obligation to intervene? What do you think others would do? What if you were walking through a park and you saw a couple get into a heated argument? The man didn't hit the woman, but seemed to be on the edge of physical violence and pushed her. Or, imagine if you were in your neighborhood convenience store, and you saw a brazen shoplifter at work. The shop owner's not a friend, but she's always been friendly to you. What would you do? Would you think you had an obligation to intervene? What do you think others would do?

Go to: http://abcnews.go.com/whatwouldyoudo to watch the program.

That got me to thinking about our faith as well. Why is it that we fail to act when we know what is right and wrong, when we believe what we believe, when we have opportunities to be in Christian service to others, or when we let others know about Christ through our actions and words?

There are lots of people, myself included, who fail to act when we have the chance to do God's work. We don't have to be standing in a pulpit, we don't have to be pushy in our faith efforts, we don't have to be an evangelist like Billy Graham to bring the good news to others. I would be uncomfortable, out of my realm, to be prominent like that. But there are other chances for us to share. So why do we have faith, believe what we believe, but do not share.

We need courage to step up, to share, to be true to our core values. We need courage to be confident. We need courage to be willing to be ridiculed. We need courage to step into situations that put us in a spotlight.