The Good Burden of Being Brave
Let us be the ones who are courageous;
who choose adventure over regret.
Many, many things in life call for courage: the need to act in the face of immediate danger; the need to confront powerful forces to correct injustice; the desire to share powerful feelings with someone who may reject them and, by extension, us; the need to place trust in someone from whom we need help, care, or love.
That last one is probably the least dramatic example in many people’s minds, but it’s not only the most ubiquitous test of our courage, it’s the one whose malfunction has probably cost us the most joy in the modern era.
Trusting others is an act of courage. It is often one of the simplest of such acts but is the lifeblood of joy as a way of life.
Ten years ago, for example, no one would have dreamed of getting into the back of a stranger’s car or staying in their apartment. Now, thanks to Airbnb and car services like Lyft and Uber, it’s commonplace. (The Anabaptists, cool kids that they are, were doing their version of Airbnb, called Mennonite Your Way, long before the internet.)
