Courage

I will never forget Kenny Harper. I have no idea where he is, but I remember what he did for me. It was after a basketball game in the ninth grade. Homerooms played each other for the Intermural championship. It was a semifinal game. It was a close game. Kenny’s team won. They really were better than us, but I thought that some calls had gone their way and that those poor calls had really cost us the game. In the locker room I let my displeasure with the game be known. In those days I had more of a competitive nature than wisdom. Too late I realized that my talking had resulted in being surrounded by the opposing team with no teammates to be found. It was then that I realized that if you talk enough you will get yourself into trouble and I was in trouble. Those guys didn’t intend to let me out of that locker room without a change of opinion and attitude. It was Kenny who saved me. It was Kenny who stepped in and calmed the situation. He spoke on my behalf. He convinced his teammates that I was just blowing off steam and that everybody just needed to calm down. I don’t know that I ever thanked Kenny for what he did, but I do know that I saw courage that day.

Courage Is Rare

Courage is such a rare value in our world. Not much has changed over the last 50 years or so. Most of us would rather not stand out. It takes a lot of courage to do the right thing when others are not. It takes a lot of courage to face down the crowd. It takes a lot of courage to make a stand for what is right when you know that it will cost you. That is courage. A name that means little to you is Mats Wilander. A former tennis pro, Wilander was playing in the semifinals of the 1982 French Open. At match point, a shot by Wilander’s opponent was ruled out. Wilander walked over to the umpire and said, “I can’t win like this. The ball was good.” The point was played over, and Wilander won fair and square. That’s courage. With the crowd cheering and with the umpire already giving the match to Wilander how courageous it was to admit the truth and to allow the match to continue.

Courage in Everyday Life

Courage is not always dramatic. Sometimes courage is seen in just treating people right with what may seem to be very little on the line. Courage is thinking of others and treating them as you would like to be treated. In 1956, songwriter Johnny Mercer received a letter from Sadie Vimmerstedt, a widowed grandmother who worked behind a cosmetics counter in Youngstown, Ohio. Vimmerstedt suggested Mercer write a song called “I Want to Be Around to Pick Up the Pieces When Somebody Breaks Your Heart.” Five years later, Mercer got in touch to say he’d written the song and that Tony Bennett would record it. Today, if you look at the label on any recording of “I Wanna Be Around,” you’ll notice that the credits for words and music are shared by Johnny Mercer and Sadie Vimmerstedt. The royalties were split 50-50, too, thanks to which Vimmerstedt and her heirs have earned more than $100,000. How easy it would have been for Mercer to never credit Vimmerstedt with the idea. But he treated her the way he would like to have been treated. That was a sign of real courage. But most of the time we think of courage in the context of something heroic or extraordinary.

Heroic Courage

Consider the heroic and courageous action of Ray Blankenship. One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the floundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child’s arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray’s free hand felt something—possibly a rock—protruding from one bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. “If I can just hang on until help comes,” he thought. He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock. On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard’s Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew. Ray Blankenship can’t swim. A courageous action. Such actions will from time to time make the headlines. What we are not apt to hear about is the everyday courage.

The Daily Courage of a Teenager

Have you ever thought of yourself as a courageous person? Have you ever thought of the daily courage it takes to be a teenager? Life can be intimidating at times and sometimes it is just easier to fade into the background rather than be a person of courage. It is easier to let your friend make fun of the nerd than to take a stand. It is easier to exclude someone rather than include them. It is easier to join in talking against teachers than to point out that they care about you. But to do the easy thing rarely takes courage. To go against the flow and do what is right—now that’s courage.

The Power of Conformity

There was a test conducted by a university where 10 students were placed in a room. 3 lines of varying length were drawn on a card. The students were told to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the longest line. But 9 of the students had been instructed beforehand to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the second longest line. 1 student was the stooge. The usual reaction of the stooge was to put his hand up, look around, and realizing he was all alone, pull it back down. This happened 75% of the time, with students from grade school through high school. The researchers concluded that many would rather fit in than be right. It doesn’t take much courage to fit in. It takes a lot of courage to do the right thing when others are not. It takes a lot of courage to treat people the way you would like to be treated.

Courage Asks: Is It Right?

Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expedience asks the question, “Is it political?” Vanity asks, “Is it popular?” But courage asks the question, “Is it right?” There comes a time when one must take a position that’s neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but the position is taken because it is right—now that’s courage.

Following Jesus with Courage

Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t take a stand based upon what was safe, political, or popular? Jesus called his followers to be like him. And if he was a person of courage and I am going to follow him, then I will be a person of courage as well. Sometimes we have to do the hardest thing because we love Jesus. Sometimes we have to do the hardest thing when we know we are going to stand alone. I think Jesus stood alone in Gethsemane and at the cross and in the wilderness being tempted and on trial before Pilate when a simple politically correct answer would have set him free. Without Jesus we live only for the moment and when we live just for the moment there is no courage. Instead there is only selfish desire. So will you be a person of courage? Will you?

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