Courage

G.K. Chesterton:
"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. 'He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,' is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. The paradox is the whole principle of courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and he will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine."

My current obsession is with figuring out how to live a life of quiet desperation for Christ. Something about the urgency with which one must live while completely discarding any and all fear of the eminent danger of leaving this world behind in a split second. Maybe some of it stems from watching the progression of a hospice patient who has been waiting for nearly the last year to die. Pallbearers, programs, obituary, and venue have been picked. Yet here this patient lays in the same bed day after death, merely waiting for death to come calling. The other day this patient asked me about a cough, and when it would go away. I simply stated that it was "part of your disease, it will never go away." The patient thanked me rather sincerely for shooting straight with my answer, and that not many people would do that. I think part of that is people's own fear of death. But I really wanted to ask I could shoot straight about something else, and just ask how long this patient intended to stay in bed and mope instead of living for the rest of whatever length of life was left? I think there is a strange freedom and yes, courage as well in people that are able to look death in the face and not bat an eyelash. No flinching. Not because they have become some closed off recluse with no emotions, but because they aren't scared. There is an amazing freedom that comes when we treat death with cavalier indifference and yet love life enough to not wish ourselves into departure from it. But God finds us with open arms ready to accept His call to "come home child" whenever He is ready.