GOODNESS REQUIRES COURAGE
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God’s message to Joshua as he began his leadership repeated the command to “be strong and courageous” a number of times, each time with a different emphasis that expands our understanding of courage and fear. In most English translations, the variation in verse 7 is that Joshua was commanded to “be strong and very courageous.” This added emphasis was paired with the instruction to obey the law Moses had passed on to him and the people. To do what is right requires courage. “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.”* When we are tempted to take shortcuts or look for easier options, to compromise what we know to be right, or to bend the truth, particularly when sticking to what we know we ought to do will cost us in some way, doing what is right demands courage; it demand that we be very courageous. Any real goodness requires real courage. God assured Joshua that this might not always be the easiest path, but it was the way to true success. Being successful is doing what is right, even when it might not look or feel like success. In a world with so many temptations and distractions, in a role with so many critics and challenges, Joshua could be true to God and to himself only with courage and strength. But God was also offering Himself and His promises as the source of that courage. It’s the same offer He makes to us.
* C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (London: Fount, 1998), 115.
