Do You Know the Rarest Form of Courage?
There are so many ways that courage shows up in our lives. Sometimes it is physical courage. It may be emotional, spiritual, or even moral courage. And yes, even mentally, there are times we need courage. Just this past year we’ve also seen examples of social courage.
With all those opportunities and examples, it can be tempting to think certain types of courage are more challenging than others. It is also clear that tests that require courage in one person may not in another.
There is one form of courage, though, that will always be the most universal and challenging. It is also a form of courage that is becoming quite rare.
What is it?
The rarest form of courage is to be ourselves.
In author Mark Batterson’s book SOUL PRINT, he shares that at some point in our lives, we all fall prey to the belief that to achieve the acceptance we all crave, we must become someone other than who we are.
At that moment, we also begin to experience despair because when we think we must be someone other than who we are, our self-worth is attacked and diminished.
Stop and think about this for a moment. When we adopt a second persona, we agree to live a secondhand life. We believe we are forcing ourselves to fit a mold so that we can have a better life. But in fact, what we achieve is something far less than we deserve. We are always living in the shadow of that image. Rather than empowering us, it limits us. We use up our best energies pretending.
Given the pressures we all face, there is no question that it takes courage to move past that image and be ourselves.
In the documentary of her 2011 tour, Katy Perry talked about this. She said that everyone was trying to “place” her – to find a spot for her in the market. They were trying to find another star she could emulate and be the next “??”. Her response was brilliant. She wasn’t interested in being the next anyone. She was the first Katy Perry.
The poet E.E. Cummings sums it up nicely: “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
Having that rare form of courage to be ourselves is not an easy path. It is, however, always the right path.
When we dare to face who we are, we also dare to grow into the person only we can be.
We need to have courage.
But above all, we need to always be our uniquely beautiful selves.
