Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was banned from his native land Russia, believes that one of the clearest indications of the spiritual and moral decadence confronting us today is the lack of courage, both in our personal lives and in government. Says the Nobel laureate writer, "A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage...in each country, each government, each political party and, of course, in the United Nations."
I’ve been thinking about Solzhenitsyn’s comments, and the longer I think about them, the more convinced I am that courage is in short supply today. Notice the number of individuals who test the winds before expressing opinions, or the people in your own office who hesitate to stick their necks out, or the friends who turn and walk away from social situations rather than having the courage to stay and ride out the storm. Seldom today do you find people who are willing to risk their reputations by making a decision on their own and then backing it up.
In times of war or chaos there are always people on both sides who stand out as men and women of courage, usually individuals who were rather common, ordinary people in civilian life but who, in times of danger, throw themselves into the thick of battle without thinking of what may happen to them. Courage is what prompted a quiet, unassuming woman, passing by a burning house and hearing the screams of a child inside, to shove past firemen and dash inside to rescue a child. "What courage," we say. Or, what of the 80-year-old woman who, walking with a cane, passed by a darkened alley and heard the screams of a woman who was being molested? Without thought of personal safety, the elderly lady turned into the alley and began beating the attacker with her cane. The attacker was eventually captured. When people asked, "Weren’t you afraid that you might be hurt?" She replied, "I’m tired of people hurting other people and I felt that I had to do something."
Our English word courage comes from a French word that means "heart". And when people manifest courage, I am convinced that it is usually the immediate response, even an unthought response, which comes from convictions in the heart as to matters of right and wrong. People of courage are usually individuals who have black and white ideas of right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, of justice and injustice. Could it be that Solzhenitsyn is right about our being soft on courage today because we have lost our sense of right and wrong? We have taken the path of least resistance. We have turned from the God of the Bible to our own ideas of what is right and wrong. In the words of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament, when every man does that which is right in his own eyes, few care enough to stick their necks out for other people.
Courage is not dead. I see it in the lives of men and women who could turn and walk away from difficult family situations, but choose to stay because they intend on doing the right thing. What about courage in your personal life? - Resource reading: 1 Samuel 17