Courage can be contagious

Years ago, Danny saw a news story reporting the brutal beating and rape of a young woman on a pool table in a bar in New York.

That part of the story is horrifying in and of itself, however, Danny continued to read, discovering that there were six men involved in this brutality.

"Six!" he exclaimed. "Six men!"

He was then, and remains today, incredulous that among those six men, there wasn't one who paused in the middle of the group's depravity to say, "Stop! This isn't right!"

Apparently there wasn't. At least not at that time and place, and not with these particular men.

All these years later, Danny still believes that if just one of those men had mustered up the courage to speak against the actions of the others, he would have found that he was not alone in his hidden anguish and shame at the crime perpetrated that day.

Courage. To dare to speak up against wrongdoing. To dare to intervene in a potentially dangerous situation. To dare to ask a stranger who appears lost, sad, sick or afraid, if everything is alright. To dare to stand against popular opinion when truth is at stake. These days, courage seems to be in short supply.

It may be making a comeback.

Apathy seemed to have this nation wrapped in a state of silent dissatisfaction. Recent headlines, however, seem to indicate that apathy may be taking a back seat as ordinary, everyday Americans come out in droves: to city council meetings, to water board meetings, to the so-called Tea Parties, even, most recently, to the nation's Capital. The voices are loud and strong and the message is unmistakable. "Enough. Stop. This is going too far."

Most pundits would claim that it is the health care proposals that have everyone so riled up, but I believe that to be an over-simplification of a complex phenomenon. I think America is fed up with the way government conducts business in this day and age. I think Americans are tired of hearing the same old rhetoric about special interest groups -- "I won't pander to them," pork projects, that of course, "won't be tolerated," and the oft-repeated campaign promise, "I will be your voice in Washington."

Yet, special interest groups still find a willing audience on The Hill, pork seems to be the featured item on every bill of fare and too many representatives would rather face their unhappy constituents back home than buck the status quo in Washington. This sense of dissatisfaction is not an overnight sensation. It's been brewing and building over the course of many years, through many administrations.

And now, people of conscious, young and old, black and white, rich and poor, male and female, are finding strength in numbers. Courage, it would seem, is as easily contagious as evil seemed to be in that New York bar all those years ago.

I find it interesting, in reading in Revelation, that there is a unique category of people who will face banishment from the Kingdom of God. Not because they are guilty of the usual litany of sins that plague each man, but because they lived a coward's life. (Revelation 21:8) The parables Jesus spoke in Matthew 25 about the talents and in Luke 19 where the mina are distributed to the master's servants, reveal God's heart about cowards and cowardice. If God gives opportunity, his children are to seize that opportunity. If it is to speak the word of truth, then the word must be spoken, even in the face of strong opposition. If it is to right a wrong, then all of our energy must fight the wrong. If it is to heal the sick, to feed the poor, to comfort those who mourn, to love the unlovable, then we must heal, feed, comfort and love.

And when God gives us the opportunity to humble ourselves before him, to accept his great gift of grace and salvation, we must muster every ounce of courage we can find to dare to bend our knee before him and open ourselves up to him.

But first, we must dare to look at ourselves honestly. We must dare to peel away the layers of self-deceit, self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. Only when we find that measure of courage will we also find the courage necessary to say with the psalmist "you alone are God." (Psalm 86:10) and find in him the courage to believe.

"But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast." Hebrews 3:6 (NIV)