An Amazing Act Of Courage [hint: you do this every day]

So, there’s this place. It’s a space that occupies moments in time that come to each of us, multiple times during our life.To be clear, it’s not a place to which we can drive and take photos but each one amongst us has been there.It’s a place called The Middle.This place between the beginning and end of a thing is hard. The Middle is found around misty corners in uncharted territory.The joyous birth of a new baby turns into diapers and play dates and school grades and teenage boyfriends and lost tempers and stumbling over the mess in the middle.Right there is where Despondency lurks, watching through our windows, waiting for the perfect time to walk through the front door.After the initial excitement of a new job and the possibility of a promising career, we trip over the mess in the middle. We find colleagues we can’t relate to, work that is so boring we can feel our insides atrophy or projects that just refuse to work out and where very few wins are in sight.Despondency eats this stuff up for lunch. It sits beside us on the park bench watching us stare at the horizon as we glue ourselves to a momentary safe spot.There, in The Middle, Despondency tries to feed off our insecurities … but here’s the thing. Insecurities are starved by one amazing act of courage - this one thing, this one action, this incredible, God-infused moment each day.We get out of bed.We face the day.This messy world that never stops moving calls us and we respond. We dress sleepy children, we pack school lunches, we drive along busy freeways, we collaborate with others, we talk to our spouse. We work it out. We live.We step over the boulders in the middle. Every day we courageously face unknown spaces, finding ground where our feet fit and ... we live.We live.We live in a fallen world, a dangerous world filled with broken, jagged pieces but because we are a special kind of creature, we fix and smooth and make it better.We face Despondency and we push back. The very life that God breathed within us is imbued with courage. He made us this way.Courageous.Like Him.We breathe and we explore and we create and we find a way.   We make it better, this world of ours.We do because we can because He made us this way.Every morning, as our feet hit the ground, we engage in an amazing act of courage. We face The Middle and we make a plan.Right there God smiles and I believe I hear him say, “That’s my girl!" “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3: 22-23 Note: If Despondency has gotten such a hold of you that you find it almost impossible to get out of bed in the morning, please be courageous enough to tell someone. Tell your pastor, tell a counsellor, tell a friend.