A friend of mine posted this CS Lewis quote and I knew it was the answer to my prayer:

“Courage is the form of every virtue at the testing point.”

It sounded so much like another CS Lewis quote that I had to read it a second time to be sure it wasn’t the same one. The other one, the one I’d carried close to my heart for years was,

“Humility isn’t so much another virtue along with the others, it is soil out of which all the graces grow.” 

We can’t truly love unless we have humility enough to esteem another better than ourselves. We can’t be faithful unless we have the humility to put ourselves aside in order to remain faithful in a job, friendship, ministry. We can’t be kind, joyful, good, we certainly can’t have self-control, without humility. It is the soil out of which all the graces grow.

But what is this bit about courage? Something resonated deeply about this idea. Yes, it is the form every virtue takes at the testing point. 

So if I cultivate humility, I seek to esteem others higher than myself, I seek to love. At some point this love will be tested. At the risk of sounding dramatic, I’d even say tested to the point that to truly love through the test feels agonizing, too painful.

Or take another virtue. To be faithful when the cost to yourself is staggeringly high … humility cultivates the growing fruit, then courage must come along to bring that faithfulness forth into fruition. 

Courage strengthens the heart of the mother who pushes through the agony of childbirth to bring forth that beautiful child. 

Courage keeps you loving even when you’re guaranteed pain. Courage keeps you moving forward in good works, even when some level of failure is inevitable. 

Last week it felt a bit like every day brought another unforeseen challenge. Often we take these things in stride, right? But sometimes we experience that slow leak of joy. I sat with the Lord a bit and tried to put my finger on what I was feeling. Defeated. That was the word.

I just feel defeated, Lord. It feels like every attempt at anything goes awry. 

I’m so grateful for people who share the Good News in various forms on social media. CS Lewis loud and clear right there in my feed and I knew it was what I needed:

Courage. Of course. All these virtues, the ones I want, the ones I pray for, all of these virtues, at the testing point, come down to courage. Courage to apologize. Courage to have the hard conversation. Courage to say yes even when you don’t how it’ll work. Courage to say no even if means disappointing someone. Courage to be honest. Courage to deny the constant cravings of self and make Kingdom choices instead. 

Last week Dutch ran his first cross-country race. He’s never done anything like this before, and I was so proud of him, a homeschool kids, joining our local high school team. He ran so well! It was all I could do not to just gush happy tears as I watched him with his team, so happy and confident and strong and kind and brave. This is the kid who was so anxious about playing baseball that he ran away and hid in our shop on game day. This is the kid who couldn’t even go to Costco because he was so overwhelmed by people. 

There he went, Courage on two long legs, striding past me across the finish line. More than getting any certain race time, I was proud of him because I knew that this represented so many courageous choices. Regular, repeated decisions to choose humility and courage.

I’m trying to do the same. 

One thought on “Humility & Courage”

  1. Don’t know what led me here. I no longer believe in coincidence. The CS Louis quote has been on my mind the past few weeks and your Humility and Courage, pointed me to, How not to Freak Out. I’m grateful for that Kari.
    Thank you

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