I used to think bravery was found in one heroic act, but now I know better.
Bravery can simply be doing the small, hard, ordinary, and often mundane daily things over and over again. It’s choosing to do the right thing when fear says not to. It’s stepping outside of our comfort zone to do the thing that God is asking us to do. Yes, there are big heroic moments that require bravery, but even the big moments first needed a practice of tiny steps in the right direction. One will never be brave in the big things if they don’t first start in the small ordinary things of life.
Yesterday I booked tickets to California to attend a writing conference in March. If you read my previous post about flying you know how brave I had to be to do this. The day before I booked the tickets, I about backed out. I ruminated on all the things that seemed too big for me. I kept asking myself, how will I do it? At that moment a thought hit me, you will do it in tiny steps. You don’t have to think of the whole picture, you simply do the next small step and each step adds up. Simply deciding to book these tickets felt like a big brave moment, but it would never have been possible if I hadn’t made small steps before this moment. Bravery is found and maintained in small steps.
This morning I sat down and read the parable of the talents. It hit me in a totally different way today. Previously, I always thought of it as refusing to use spiritual gifts. Today, I saw it as brave living.
I feel safest if I can measure the outcome. If I can’t measure a guaranteed outcome I tend to shy away from it. Going to a writing conference doesn’t guarantee anything. It is a big investment with no measurable outcome. When I was considering booking the tickets, my dad told me “nothing ventured, nothing gained. You’ll never know until you try.” Instead of obsessing about what I could lose and what the purpose was, I decided to simply go for it.
The parable of the talents showed me today this same principle. The one guy was so afraid to do anything with what he had, he just buried it. I can imagine he saw the big picture. He focused too much on all his fears and thought he wasn’t up for the task of producing a gain. I can see him saying, no the safe thing to do would be to bury it, then I wont lose it. He wasn’t willing to take small brave steps toward the big picture.
I can be doing things for God and use my talents, but if I am too scared to step out of my comfort zone because of what I could lose, I am exactly like the guy who buried his talent. I “bury my talents” by playing it safe.
The other two men on the other hand went and immediately did something with their talent, they weren’t held back by the fear of: what if I lose this, what if I don’t earn back what I’ve done. They were brave. They were just living life doing the best they could with what they had. I believe they were taking simple brave steps instead of being overwhelmed by what could be lost.
They didn’t feel the need to play it safe because they trusted God with the outcome.
Stepping outside of our comfort zone and using our “talents” is about moving towards where God is asking us without a guaranteed result. It’s taking small brave steps.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
So often in my life I have played it safe. I have been the one hiding my “talent” in the ground thinking I was doing a service by keeping it safe. I was using my spiritual gifts….in a controlled “safe” manner. I was unwilling to step out past what felt safe. Yet in the act of “playing it safe” I essentially wasn’t gaining anything. Each time I suppressed the Spirit’s nudge to step out and gain something for Him, I ignored it in the name of safety and appropriateness.
Life isn’t about playing it safe and doing the appropriate thing. It’s about trusting God’s path for us. It isn’t in our ability to control the outcome, it is in our faith that God does. Bravery stems from faith. Playing it safe stems from fear. So instead of focusing on all the ways I can control an outcome, I am learning to focus on the very next step. I believe this simple but hard act is the very bravest thing we can do.
