Does Faith Take Courage?

 Watching some more episodes of The Crown today and wondered about the one featuring Prince Philip and his problems with faith. Most of us are brought up in one church or another and taught the precepts of that particular church. My sweet parents were Baptists and took us to church every time the doors were open. In fact, Mom told me about the bell in the church steeple ringing the day that she and Dad got married. It was the last time it rang until my brother was up in the steeple taking it down when they rebuilt the church. Funny things happen like that in real life. It was not a matter of faith, just coincidence. Sometimes our faith works about like that. We listen to one way of thought long enough until it becomes a part of our thought processes. But listening is not coincidental; it is a matter of thought if it becomes faith. But how do we know that faith has a good foundation? For as long as my parents were able, they prayed--for their family, for their nation, for safety. They even named their last car Old Hope So. For they never knew if they would get where they intended; they prayed and hoped so. They had the courage to start out, at least. It takes a certain kind of courage to go out into the world right now. Maybe more so than ever before. Or not. Look at the pioneers. Thinking about my great grandparents taking a baby in a wagon from Indian Territory to go back across the Red River to Montague County. That took some guts! Or my great-great grandmother who rode from Traskwood, Arkansas during the Civil War to San Antonio, Texas to get to her husband to nurse him back to health. She had to have the faith that she could make that trip, but it took courage. Sitting here wondering what kind of courage resides within me. It takes more than sermons heard from a pew to believe that God will watch over us. It takes seeing courage in action, remembering that each generation has stepped out onto that shaky platform of faith just to be able to walk forward with no sure knowledge of the path before us. Yep, my feeling is that faith takes courage.

May you each find courage in life for the faith we need. You are loved.