Daring Greatly

Looking back on my blogs from last year, I discover that I spent a lot of time talking about perseverance and hard times: taking the dark road, not growing weary, running with endurance, etc. I stand by what I said; I have found it all true time and again. 2019, it would seem, was not the kindest or happiest year for most of us.

That said, however, it is time to turn to happier and more hopeful thoughts for a while. The road has not become any smoother, any shorter, or any less steep, and it still requires endurance. But that endurance cannot come from willpower alone; it must come from “the joy that is set before [us].” So in this post, I want to talk about joy. Instead of starting in Hebrews 12, I want to start back in Hebrews 10.

“Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward,” the author of Hebrews tells us. I struggle with this. It is tempting to give up on dreams and hopes and ambitions, to “grow up” and let them pass. Expected disappointment hurts less than disappointed expectation. But this is not true maturity. “There is no more unhealthy being,” Teddy Roosevelt tells us, “than he who [holds] an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty.”

“It is not the critic who counts;” he goes on, “not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I have heard this speech quoted before, as I’m sure you have, but I heard it again recently, and it made me think. Who is there left in the world who really believes that men can be great? JFK inspired the world asking us to, “with a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, [go] forth to lead the land we love…” Does anyone still believe such things are possible?

I do. The author of Hebrews does.

He recognizes that it will not be easy; we “have need of endurance to obtain the promise.” That is why it is so important to hold on to our confidence – because we cannot obtain the promise unless we are willing to “dare greatly” and take the path to the very end. If, when push comes to shove, we decide we don’t want to take the risk, if we dip a toe or a foot in and then pull back – “[God’s] soul takes no pleasure in [us].”

“No one,” Jesus tells us in Luke, “having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” And again in Revelation: “because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” The story of God and his people is, as I have said before, the story of an epic battle, a war spanning centuries. It is also, on a still deeper level, a great love story. But either way – battle or romance – indifference is fatal. It is the ultimate insult, the ultimate rejection, to say to someone not, “I love you,” or “I hate you,” but “you don’t matter.”

God’s people, Hebrews tells us, is a people that dares and does great things. We are meant to be a people bold and brave, free and fearless. Sometimes we pass out soup; other times we stop the mouths of lions. Sometimes the way is sweet, and sometimes it is bitter. But the bitterness, too, is a kind of greatness – better than to be “cold and timid” and draw back. It is the drawing back, not the daring, that leads to perdition.

But what does ‘stepping out in faith’ or ‘doing great things’ really look like? That’s a topic for next week’s post.

“Extreme Sports” by Kirill Tutchkin is licensed under CC BY 4.0