Courage and Honor

...any fool can have courage, but honor, that's the real reason why you either do something or you don't. It's who you are, and maybe who you want to be. If you die trying for something important, then you have both honor and courage, and that's pretty good...you should hope for courage, and try for honor...and maybe even pray that the people telling you what to do have some too.
~ from The Blind Side


Thoughts about courage and honor have been nagging and tugging and gnawing and lingering and constructing and deconstructing and reconstructing in my busy brain for quite some time.  These are not easy, simple thoughts...though perhaps they would be if I didn't teach critical thinking and argument.


You can't talk about courage or honor without also talking about fear and betrayal--cowardice and disgrace.

  

That's fine, except that you can't really talk about fear and betrayal--cowardice and disgrace--without talking about strength and commitment...and weakness and failure.


And you can't talk about strength and commitment and weakness and failure without talking about grace and forgiveness...mercy and obedience.


Great. Except you can't talk about mercy and obedience without talking about love and 
compassion...trust and commitment...selfishness and sacrifice

So, of course, there's no talking about trust and commitment, or selfishness and sacrifice, without talking about faith and allegiance...hope and expectation...


No talk of hope and expectation can be divorced of righteousness and justice...truth and holiness.


There is no truth and holiness without glory and majesty...and no majesty without dominion and praise...no praise without thanksgiving...and no thanksgiving without contrition...and no contrition without change...and no change without pure motives...and no pure motives without Christ...no talk of Christ without talk of suffering and death...and no talk of 
suffering and death without talk of joy and life.

And so it goes.  But in each of these is a decision...HIS made for me...mine made for HIM.

Courage and honor.