Courage, strength in the face of fear.

But what really is “strength in the face of fear?”

The bible mentions courage multiple times,

“The hearts of believers who show good courage are strengthened” and “God inspires believers to encourage one another.”

This describes courage as a sort of life force, a force that can be uplifted between each other; it's like the mana within us.

Courage is the ability within someone to counter the unbalance of fear. What is the fear? What are we afraid of?

According to Google, the most common fears include:

• Arachnophobia – The fear of spiders
• Ophidiophobia – The fear of snakes
• Acrophobia – The fear of heights
• Agoraphobia – The fear of open or crowded spaces
• Cynophobia – The fear of dogs

We all experience fear, its the perception of danger. We all fear something. So what else do we fear?

• Getting sick
• Coronavirus
• Failing internals
• Losing your girl or boyfriend
• Poverty
• Losing friends
• Status
• Failing your driving test

I surveyed ten students/staff on Thursday with the question, “What do you fear the most today?”

The responses were as follows:

• Being embarrassed
• My mother dying
• My sister
• Choking on watermelon
• People sitting on me
• Sargood Year 11 boys
• Tik Tok videos
• Climate Change
• Losing one of my children
• Losing my family
• Dying before my daughter grows up, and finally … Failure

But, to use a famous quote,

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but what you do when you are afraid.”

How do you manage things when you are afraid?

A common reaction is the fight-flight-freeze or fawn response.

To fight is to confront the threat aggressively.

The flight is to run from the danger.

To freeze is to find yourself unable to move or act against the threat in front of you.

And to fawn is the response of complying with the danger to save yourself.

These are the natural reactions our mind subconsciously tells our body to do in the face of fear.

All of us have experienced at least one of the four reactions - the difficulty is having the mental resilience to control these actions.

An example of someone with this mental resilience and courage is Kate Sheppard.

TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY - THIS IS A GOOD DAY TO REMEMBER HER STORY AND TO HONOUR THE COURAGE OF MANY MILLIONS OF WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD TODAY.

KATE SHEPHERD IS AN ICON OF COURAGE FOR US ALL

Most of us know the story of how she became famous, by fighting and eventually earning women the right to vote. But this didn't come from a couple of rallies; it came from constant courage to fight for what she believed in. For years, she had to live in fear.

Fear of danger, fear of peoples mockery and threats; and a fear of people too stubborn and ignorant to accept this move for the better.

Yet she had a choice, to either act instinctively, or to consciously make a decision to react with passion and hope - to react with courage.

To manage things we are afraid of, we have to make conscious decisions, decisions needing to be made in that split second after we are faced with that choice. These decisions determine the integrity we have.

With that being said, seeking help is not always a weakness in courage.

Indeed, seeking help is consciously identifying your own circumstance and identifying it is not a viable option to be alone.

The bible reading today talks about how perfect love overcomes fear, overcomes all fear in which fear may create a barrier.

The reading also talks about how abiding in God's love results in God abiding in us.

When we love God in times of strife, he will comfort us.

This relates back to seeking help in the face of fear.

At times we may feel as if we don't have someone around us to seek refuge in, this is not true; God's love for us is always present.

Courage is not always the hero in the cape or the star on stage; it’s a part of the community.

There was a widowed woman who through tragic circumstances, was left to raise seven kids on her own.

She was previously a stay at home mother accompanied by a working father.

In a short period of time, she had to overcome her grief, and somehow find a job with little work experience in order to support her children.

All this, while remaining a role model figure for every single one of them.

On top of all this, she had been left with an autoimmune illness for the rest of her life; meaning that within a few hours, she really did have to escape the many layers of death she was faced with.

Where did this strength in such adversity come from?

In that moment, she had to make a conscious decision.

She had to draw on the only thing she had left within her, she had to draw on the courage within herself.

She relied on that life force that is deep inside us all, a force-placed there by God, trusting in his plan.

I know this to be true, because to my mum’s benefit, I’ve turned out alright(ish).

Courage is all around us; every person here today is in a constant battle with fear, the constant battle of a choice.

There are people fighting battles of mental health, people fighting battles behind the four walls of a house, people who are bullied every day without choice and yet, they always have one thing in common.

Courage.

It's their army against the odds.

So face fear with courage.

Because, the bravest of people are not often the ones who appear to be fearless, but the ones who face fear front on.

Face fear with courage.