I closed my last Wilderness Way column (#23) writing about courage. It was my intention to move on to issue of “tough trust in divine leading” as the fifth major way we journey through the unknown spiritual and religious wilderness of our time. Yet, I found myself unsettled with my writing on courage. It is not that I disagree with what I wrote. It is that there is more that needs to be said.

            Do you recall the story of the spies going into the land of Canaan? They come back and report “there are giants in the land.”(Numbers 13:32) Ten recommend retreat. Joshua and Caleb however courageously advocate going into the Promised Land. “If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into the land and give it to us. . . . Only do not rebel against the Lord.” (Numbers 14:8, 9) Fear dominates the day; the people of God retreat. (It is worth noting that the congregations threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb, Numbers 14:10.) Thus, because of a failure of nerve, the exodus continues. The comfort and perceived safety of the known obstructed entrance into the Promised Land.

            We too face giants. We need the courage of God’s servants, the courage of people like Joshua and Caleb. However, it is not enough to just say “have courage!” Courage often (perhaps always) has an emotional component as well as spiritual and physical components. Emotional courage means embracing the mission of God over the relational comfort of the congregation. In the United Methodist Church relationships have trumped mission. Faith-walking in the unknown wilderness of the 21^st Century will require mission to trump relationships. (Please do not misunderstand. Relationships are important, critically so. This is not an endorsement of relational misanthropes. Rather, courage involves the proper ordering of the two.) Mission must take precedence over relationships. We cannot take council to our fears, as the people did in Numbers. The church does not exist to keep everyone happy. The church exists to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. (Matthew 28:16-20)

            A second issue of courage involves the relationship between safety and adventure. The United Methodist Church is a risk adverse institution (both nationally and, even more so, on the local level.). This has to change. In Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix Edwin Friedman writes: “If a society is to evolve, or if leaders are to arise, than safety can never be allowed to become more important than adventure.” (p. 83) 

The Christian life is life with and under the Lordship of Christ. By definition it is meant to be a life of adventure and service to the living Lord. Just read the Book of Acts to get a sense of the risk-taking courage that drove the early Christians. The Holy Spirit is the courage-giving, risk-evoking presence of God in our lives. There is a line for somewhere near the close of King Lear that rings in my memory. “Take courage, physic, pomp, exposed thyself to feel what retches feel that thou might shake the super-flux and show the heavens more just.” Courage is the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. It is past time for the United Methodist Church to take courage. 

Allow me to repeat the close of WW23 with two slight changes. Significantly real courage requires imagination as well as risk taking. Real courage invites us to step off the treadmill of trying harder and reframe questions. It challenges us to rediscover the lessons of the past for today. Real courage involves not taking counsel to our fears and anxieties but listening to the Spirit’s leading. Real courage involves tough trust in divine leading. But then, that is the topic of Wilderness Way #25. For now, may we embrace real courage through 1) risk taking, 2) creative imagining, 3) rediscovering our courageous past for inspiration in today’s wilderness, 4) listening to the Spirit’s leading (involving deep prayer and the vision to see a different tomorrow in faith!) and 5) choosing mission over relational comfort.