In the moments when we wonder why we bother, when we feel futile and small and ridiculous, when we feel misunderstood and mischaracterized, when we are paying a price, it's in those moments that we learn the truth about being brave: it doesn't always feel good.
If, as Aristotle supposedly posited, the only way to avoid criticism is to say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing, well, then that's certainly an option. And sometimes a very alluring option. Be nothing, do nothing, say nothing, watch more television, buy more stuff.
Everyone likes to talk about being fearless, about owning your truth, about standing up and being counted. We sing songs in church about being brave, we blast music in the minivan and shake shake shake it off, we hang prints up in our homes about courage, we talk about brave people or follow them on social media until we somehow make ourselves believe that we ourselves are somehow brave.
I think we like to talk a lot about being brave because the actual doing of it is so freaking terrifying. And tiring. And ordinary.
It's my belief that true fearlessness comes from living loved. When we find our worth and our value in Christ, then, as the Psalmist wrote, what can man do to us? I don't think we can be a people-pleaser or an approval-addict AND be brave with our lives. Perhaps that's why fearlessness or bravery starts with our identity first, it's the deep well from which we draw living water, enough for today.
I believe that bravery is born in the quiet and ordinary moments long before it's seen by anyone else. Sometimes it's as simple and devastating as the moments no one else will ever see -- the moments of daring to be honest with our own self, of laying down our excuses or justifications or disguises, of asking ourselves what we really want, of forgiveness, of honesty, of choosing the hard daily work of restoration, of staying resolutely alive when every one else is just numbing themselves against life. These are why our friends matter so deeply: they are witness to the sacred secrets. Not all secrets are terrifying things, some of them are beautiful and transformative.
But then come moments -- those turning point moments, when you know it matters more than anyone else would know from the outside. The "yes" you need to say, the "no" you need to enforce, the truth you need to speak, the life you dare to imagine, the risk you take, the art you create, the establishment you defy, the danger you face, the living out of what you profess, whatever. Those moments are our turning points because when we look back on them, we say "and then something changed."
That is true. Usually it's us, we're the ones who change. We take another tentative step out onto the water, a bit further away from the boat of our safety. And we do it alongside of each other, hand in hand, never alone.
I have learned the hard way that we usually can't be brave on our own.
The ways we connect with each other might be quite typical -- Sunday morning services or school pick-ups or Bible studies at church or school or work or afternoon walks. Or more typical to our generation -- Facebook, Twitter, blogs, podcasts and texting. Either way, we don't feel quite so alone in our moments of choosing brave. We feel seen, we feel heard, we feel prayer at our back and a sisterhood waiting up ahead of us on the path.
Together makes us braver.
I am surrounded by interesting and dangerous women. Sometimes this is wonderful, other times it's exhausting. It is always challenging because they push me. They push me to think harder, to be more honest, to read more widely, to listen more broadly, to get my hands dirty, to stop compartmentalizing my life and to live more seamlessly. They make me examine my choices and my priorities. They question me and they pray for me. When I grow weary, they hold my arms up and growl "don't you dare sit down." These women have stretched my opinions, my theology, my mind, and my heart until I hardly know my own shape anymore. The funny thing is that they do this just by getting on with it -- no sermons, no programs and no big manifestos -- just a company of women being brave in ordinary ways, each so different from the other.
They are being brave with their own lives and so, because I am alongside of them, I am learning to be brave, too.
Their lives are a cadence I want to carry: others first, pay attention, open heart, work well, rest radically, open doors, live prophetically, make room in your life to be inconvenienced, challenge and love well. I stumble so often, I get cranky and melodramatic and self-important. March, they say. Pick up your one small stone, they say. We've got a mountain to move.
It's a risk. Don't let anyone tell you differently. There is a price to pay, a cost to be counted. Reorienting your life around what you believe about God and what it means to be truly human and believing every small life or act of justice matters comes with a cost. We are counting that cost. And it's worth it. Every time. Even when we're wrong. Even when we screw up. Even when we sink beneath the waves and find ourselves scrambling back to the boat and licking our wounds: being brave together is worth it. It means we get to try again. Together.