Courage

                                                             

Sometimes we feel discouraged
When we see the ways of the blind
But then we become encouraged
Through peace in the greatest mind

The winds of this world are strong
And the waves of the sea do grind
But we’ve found rest with sanctuary
Through peace in the greatest mind

The mystery of the unchartered future
And the history we've left behind
Makes us stand fast and strong
Through peace in the greatest mind

To whom greater can we turn to
Or in whom wiser can we find
Than the One now with us to lead us
Through peace in the greatest mind

©2010 Copyright Lawrence E Tucker

Christ gives us hope
Beyond all doubt
And we give Him praise
For bringing us out

Emerald cool we may be As water in cupped hands But, oh, that we might be As splinters of glass in cupped hands.

The morality of commitment is the structure of life--even though it makes life tough at times.  It enables and accompanies the morality of authenticity.  Inevitably life brings us to face:

What authority do I recognize
Other than, I want?
Whom do I serve other than myself?
What future am I helping
To bring off.
---Ross Snyder

Commitment is risk-taking. It is not about being sure. It is about taking a stand. It is about making choices in a non=black-and-white world, where the final answer is rarely known for sure. It is about having the courage to be wrong, the courage to fail.

It is about making choices to establish one's direction rather than being dictated to by vacillating emotions or by an authority outside of self (or an inspired book interpreted by the authorities) or by the second hand learnings of childhood.

There's a truly great Irish poet. His name is Brendan Kennelly, and he has this epic poem called the Book of Judas, and there's a line in that poem that never leaves my mind, it says: "If you want to serve the age, betray it."

What does that mean, to betray the age? Well to me betraying the age means exposing its conceits, it's foibles; it's phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths.

Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will.

Slavery was one of them and the people who best served that age were the ones who called it as it was — which was ungodly and inhuman. Benjamin Franklin called it what it was when he became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

Segregation. There was another one. America sees this now but it took a civil rights movement to betray their age. And 50 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court betrayed the age. May 17, 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education came down and put the lie to the idea that separate can ever really be equal. Amen to that.

What are the ideas right now worth betraying? What are the lies we tell ourselves now?

Now is the moment to start.
Imagine a pathway through the thick underbrush
of world events and manipulations

Where we, the loving inhabitants
the good, the decent, those with conscience
vision, hope and longing

Can come together
in a dialogue of honest evaluation
fearless in facing what is happening.

Once we understand what is taking place on earth,
and lose the last of our illusions
real adult dream-building can begin.

Let us hold hands to have the strength
to get past our denial, fears, anger, blame,
grieving

to imagine that we can Flourish
in a world that is seemingly
falling apart.

Now in a world full of less,
perhaps we can experience more of the best in us,
the fulfillment of what we were each created for.

Here your DREAMS are welcomed,
Your IDEAS are allowed to develop.
OUR friendship and harmony will sustain us.

I am with you in this process.
Love,
JGrace

Two virtues nowadays are paramount,
For which history will hold us to account:
First wisdom, which discerns mere wants from needs,
Then moral courage from which choice proceeds.

We now must demonstrate our firm resolve
To help Earth’s injured biosphere evolve,
For we’ve become co-evolutionists
Through the intelligence of scientists.

We then must temper knowledge with what’s wise
Since we are wakening to realize
We play a role in the vast cosmic scheme
Foreshadowed in the ancient mythic dream

Of Uroboros who ate his own tail:
If we consume our habitat, we fail.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living,
I want to know what you ache for,
And if you dare to dream of meeting
Your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
For love, for your dreams,
For the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
If you have been opened by life's betrayals,
Or have become shriveled and closed for fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain,
Mine or your own,
Without moving
To hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy,
Mine or your own,
If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
Without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

I want to know if you can see beauty
Even when it is not pretty every day,
And if you can source your life
From God's presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure,
Yours and mine,
And still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
Weary and bruised to the bone,
And do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are,
how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
In the center of the fire with me
And not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
From the inside
When all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
And if you truly like the company you keep
In the empty moments.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness That most frightens us.
We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I deserve to be,

I want to be,

I can be,

I will be,

I am.