Good Courage and Healing

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.

(King James Version)

Be brave. Be strong. Don't give up.
Expect God to get here soon.

Psalm 31:24(The Message)

In a recent book,  The Heart and the Fist: The education of a Humanitarian, the making of a Navy SEAL,  Eric Greitens connects two virtues, courage and compassion.  He states, “Without courage compassion falters, and that without compassion, courage has no direction”.  The most impressive part of the book is how he lives his beliefs through the work of his organization, “The Mission Continues”.  He writes about his time in Rwanda and reflects on a machete wound scar of a young girl states, "the world requires of us-of every one of us-that we be both good and strong in order to love and protect.”

Another recent book Love Wins:  A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Rob Bell argues that there is another understanding of evil and that God’s love and specifically Christ’s love wins when confronting evil and suffering.   He also describes being in Rwanda (p. 70) with its visual artifacts of evil and is able to state, “God has been looking for partners ...(who) centered their hopes in God...the God who gives new spirits and new hearts and new futures.“

What I think both views come to is the reality of healing!   Both would agree that “good does overcome evil” but the source and process to the healing is seemingly different.  Eric sees it in discipline and dedication of the men and women he has met and studied.  Rob Bell sees it as gift from God that once accepted allows us a new vision of the world.

I give thanks for the healing agents, Rob Bell and Eric Greitens, who remind us of the importance of courage and love both as virtues and verbs!  God is at work in the lives and leadership of these men.  Thanks be to God!

Marvin