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 II Timothy 1: 3-7
One summer night when I had a cottage on a small Maine island, I was reading in my study when someone tapped on the window. It was a neighbor, a young man in his early thirties. "Can I come in?" he asked. I motioned him around to the front door and invited him in. I could see that he was very, very nervous. There was a little small talk--"How was your day?" and so forth--and then he said, "Mr. Caliandro, I've got something to tell you."
"Do you remember the summer when you had a well drilled for your cottage?" I remembered it clearly. It had been drilled near the end of the summer, and I was going to have a handyman from the island install the pump the following spring. The following April the handyman called me to say, "Arthur, I can't get a plumb line down into the well. Something is blocking the hole." He told me he thought the well driller had not installed the pipe properly and the winter frost had dislodged it.
I called the driller, who came to the island to examine the hole. He disagreed. "No, everything was done properly. I believe it was vandalism." This was followed by considerable debate. Eventually, lawyers got involved and we reached a settlement. The well-driller had to transport his heavy equipment on a barge and re-drill the well.
My young neighbor gathered his courage and said, "Mr. Caliandro, I caused the problem with your well. I threw rocks down the opening. Will you forgive me?" I was impressed with his candor and courage. I called him by name, and said, "I forgive you." Later I thought of the many times we had seen each other, and how tortured he must have been by guilt. I wondered how many times he had seen me coming and had gone another way. I thought of how this struggle had gone on for fifteen years before, finally, he had the courage to confess, and clear his conscience.
He then asked, "Can I make restitution?" I said, "No, many years have passed. I don't want you to make restitution in a direct way to me. But I would like you to promise that sometime in the future, when there is something you feel you should support, you will do it." He promised he would, and I trust that he followed through on his promise.
Courage can be hard to come by. It means facing oneself. It may well be that facing oneself is the biggest and most formidable challenge any human being has. And yet I believe I am right when I say that being courageous is very important. The world is advanced by courage. And, on the other side, the world is diminished by cowardice.
Allow me to be very personal. My world, and the world around me, is advanced and strengthened whenever I do something that might be considered as courageous. And I also know for sure that my world and the world around me is diminished and weakened when I display cowardice. And I must confess I am much better at cowardice.
I frequently think back to a scripture I first read as a young boy. It made a lasting impression on me. In his second letter to his protégé Timothy, St. Paul writes, "God did not give us the spirit of cowardice, God gave us the spirit of power." Some translations have "the spirit of courage and love and self-discipline." Let us consider the original meaning of the word courage. In Middle English and in Latin, cour means heart. This means that when we are courageous, we come from our heart and passion, and we are committing to something big. The other part of courage, as St. Paul said--and he was right on target--is the importance of self-discipline, which is self-management, inner controls, inner guidance.
In talking about courage, I need to make a confession. Not too long ago, there was something I needed to deal with which, in a cowardly way, I was avoiding. I kept ducking it. For the first few days, it only affected me. It eventually affected other people as well. One day I was on the telephone talking with one of the people it was affecting, a very good friend. I was talking around the issue, trying not to face it, and this friend, in a friendly but firm voice, said, "Caliandro, you are a coward." I said, "I know it." That friend's charge motivated me to do what I had to do to face myself and the issue. A day later I did it.
A few days later, I called this person to say thank you. And then I said, "I've got to tell you a story. That's not the first time I was called a coward." A number of years ago when my predecessor, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, and I had an administrative decision to make, we both waffled, avoiding it. I wanted him to do it. He wanted me to do it. And nothing happened. One Sunday morning when I was in the office, Mrs. Peale walked in. If you know Ruth Peale, she stands about five feet tall, but she is always erect, with a determined strength, so that her five feet is a giant five feet; she is the biggest five-foot woman I have ever known. Dr. Peale and I were discussing this matter, and she looked at her husband, and she looked at me, and said, "Norman, Arthur, you men are cowards." We looked at each other, and agreed with her. Then, as the junior man, I was the one who had to do it.
In the years since then I hope I have learned a little more about doing those things that take courage. The most helpful thing I have learned is to deal with challenges one day at a time. We think in terms of years, or months or weeks, but we really live in days. Even more, we live in moments. We can become more courageous if, every day, we put on the clothes of our best selves. We put on the clothes of our best selves and work to be responsible for whatever confronts us in that day.
I know there are many people present this morning who get depressed. Some of you know depression in a very deep, extended way. I am grateful I have never experienced such a level of depression, but I have a sense of what it might be like--how hard it can be. It takes courage for you to get up and get dressed in the morning. Some days it takes courage just to face breathing. I commend you for the courage you showed in getting up and making your way here. I commend you. Indeed, you are putting on your best self today. You are doing well by meeting the challenge of just being in this moment.
I know for a fact that there are people here who are ill or have handicaps. Some of you are facing a terminal illness. You suffer with apprehension, anxiety and fear, as well as disappointment, because of the things you want to do, the places you want to see, the things you want to achieve, all the experiences you long to have. And you feel these things may not be possible for you. But take courage. Put on the clothes of your best self, and with faith and positive thoughts, face each thing that confronts you in each day. If you do that, you will find that tomorrow is a better day, regardless of any trying circumstance.
I also know there are many here who are frustrated because life is so complex. This certainly is true for me. Often when people ask me, "Arthur, how are you doing?" I say, "I didn't expect it to be this difficult at this stage of my life." It doesn't get simple. It doesn't get easier. But we must put on the clothing of our best selves, proceed with courage, and do the things we need to do.
Maybe you have heard this story of a woman in Alberta, Canada, who was driving with her two children, an infant and a three-year-old, when she slid off a snowy highway and into a ditch. She was pinned and unable to get out. She kept her one-year-old infant close to her, and told her three-year-old son to go and get help. The little boy made his way up the embankment and walked for two miles through the cold and snow before seeing someone who could help them. He saved the lives of his mother and baby brother. To us, this little child is a hero. When it was needed, he put on the clothes of his best self and he responded with courage.
The African-American poet and novelist Langston Hughes has a wonderful poem about courage. It's called Mother to Son.
Well son, I'll tell you.
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor.
Bare.
But all the time,
I'se been climbin on,
And reachin landins,
And turnin corners,
And sometimes goin in the dark,
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps,
Cause you find it kinda hard.
Don't you fall now,
For I'se still goin, honey.
I'se still climbin.
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
This mother is saying, "Son, have courage. Put on the clothes of your best self, even if you don't feel it, and meet the challenges of your life head on."
There isn't one of us here today who wouldn't have the opportunities, freedoms, and privileges we have except for the courage of people who have gone before us. I don't know this for a fact but, knowing the times, I am certain that thirty-five years or so ago when my predecessor, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, was arranging for his succession, and he mentioned my name, somebody said, "Norman, you can't do that. He's Italian!" In those days Italians were considered a step behind most others. At about that same time a very prominent member of the church, and a very close friend of Dr. Peale's, said to me, "You know something, Arthur? For an Italian, you're all right." That was a left-handed compliment, but I understood where he was coming from. I am here because of the courage Dr. Peale showed in not letting nationality affect him.
There isn't one of us here who isn't blessed and doesn't have a better life today because of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Whether we're Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, whatever, we are all beneficiaries, because people had enough courage to say, "No, this is wrong. When you take advantage of one group of people, everyone is the loser." Even the oppressors are in a prison themselves, because they are not free to be their best selves. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has affected and blessed every one of us. Without the courage of Dr. King and all the other civil rights leaders, we would not have many of the blessings we have today.
Some of you remember back to the early and mid-1960s when there were some strange young people, considered outcasts. They dressed different, they acted different, they didn't seem normal. The reality was that they didn't conform to what we thought normalcy was. We knew them as "flower children." They saw something wrong with what America was doing in Vietnam. They demonstrated, and they protested, and they marched. They had enormous courage in pointing out something that was wrong, and because of the movement they started, our government finally did what they hadn't had the courage to do--they got us out of the killing fields of Vietnam.
I have enormous respect for whistle blowers. Like the flower children, in pointing out things that are wrong, they get enormous criticism and judgment. But I thank God for the whistle blowers. They expose what needs to be exposed. Their role is important. It's sad that these people are often vilified and isolated when they should be cheered and supported. I have enormous respect for their courage.
Not too long ago, a young soldier in Iraq, assigned to work in the Abu Ghraib prison, saw his fellow soldiers treating the prisoners cruelly. He was witnessing a wrong, and he reported it. Many people criticized him and charged him with disloyalty to our country. But God bless him for having the courage to say no when it was right to do so.
The world is advanced by the courage of its people. The world is diminished by the cowardice of its people.
Our strongest, most vital, most helpful example and influence is Jesus who, through His life and ministry, demonstrated courage. There was the time when He came out of the temple and witnessed some men about to stone a woman for having committed adultery. He stopped them. On many occasions He healed on the Sabbath. He was told, "The rules say you can't work on the Sabbath." Jesus responded that rules are never more important than people. And He did what was right.
And at the very end of His life He could have backed down before the authorities and avoided death. But He didn't. He believed His calling was to maintain the integrity of His journey. He faced crucifixion, and when He was on the Cross, He forgave and loved the people. We are here today, in this wonderful and spiritually nourishing church, because of Jesus' courage.
No matter what is happening with you, whether you feel like it or not, dress in the clothes of your best self, and meet the challenges you are presented with each day. Let us pray.
GOD, for the courage of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, we say thank you. For all those who lived before us, and whose courage have given us what we have today, we say thank you. And we pray that we might be given the strength and the energy and the desire to stand up and be courageous ourselves. In Jesus' name and in His way we pray. AMEN |
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