Courage

I agree with what Atticus is saying in the sense that perseverance through the face of hopelessness is true courage. Perseverance is the ability to not let people, objects, and circumstances get in the way of what you are trying to achieve. In order for this happen, there cannot be fear of those around you. If you are always afraid of what people might think of you, you will never be able to persevere when things become hopeless, because people will always tear you down. So therefore, courage is not only the ability to stand firm when people are tearing you down, but the ability to be vulnerable with those people. Courage is where we are willing to be open with people even when we know those people can hurt us. 

However, vulnerability does not mean you are naive. Vulnerability is being able to make a speech in front of a class, asking questions even if they might sound strange, or humbling yourself enough to ask for support. This is the type of courage I admire. The type of courage where fear of people does not hold you back. Where your goal is not to impress but to love. The courage to share your weaknesses to others. That type of courage is something our nation has lost. We constantly put on fake identities to hide our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Exercising power that isn’t really our own, is not courage at all. If we can reveal our human weaknesses, then we as a people would be united not only in understanding of each other but understanding in our need as a society for a savior. Corinthians 12:9-10 says: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Courage is the ability to humble oneself and share in each other’s weaknesses, so we can be united in the hope and love of Christ