Courage is easy to identify – right? Courage faces a crisis with a
spirit that is ready to defy. Courage stands up in the face of fear. Courage
never takes a backwards step. Courage, in short, is ready to stand your ground
and fight. Right?
During WW1 many generals believed that courage would win the day. In
spite of the odds, in spite of the dangers and in spite of the concerns
generals ordered men to advance with courage. The troops had courage and they
were willing to fight to the end. There was however one problem. Advancing in
the face of machine gun fire was not courageous. It was foolish! Calling on the
troops to exhibit courage was absurd when the enemy was overwhelming. Sometimes
the most courageous call is not to advance, but to retreat. Courage is no
substitute for wisdom.
Today the world faces its greatest health crisis in 100 years. Doctors,
pandemic researchers, immunologists, health officials and the World Health
Organisation are unanimously shouting that today the most courageously wise
thing to do is to retreat. They are warning us that for our own sake, for the
sake of the most vulnerable and for the sake of the health system we need to
socially isolate as comprehensively as possible.
Every country that has had a major outbreak of Covid-19 is now
listening.
However, countries which still have a small number of cases are much
slower to call a general retreat. Some
still want to go to the footy for one last week. Some think it can’t happen to
me. Some fear the economic cost of retreat. Some fear that retreat will make us
look weak. Some believe that the herd will be stronger if we advance and accept
the casualties. Some are so committed to victory that the thought of retreat is
unimaginable.
I am neither a general or a scientist. I’m not even sure that I am very
courageous. In the face of the reality of the medical and economic crisis we
are facing, I too am afraid. However, I am convinced that life has seasons.
Humility demands that I accept the wisdom of the scholar and the scientist and
humbly bow before my Maker, dependent on his mercy and grace.
This season too will pass. We are not helpless. God has given us minds
to think and reason to follow.
Our refuge is prayer.
To retreat today is not to give up, but to ready ourselves for tomorrow’s
advance.
There is a time for
everything and season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born
and a time to die
a time to plant and a time
to up root
a time to kill and a time to
heal
a time to weep and a time to
laugh,
a time to mourn and a time
to dance,
a time to scatter stones and
a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time
to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time
to give up,
a time to tear down and a
time to mend,
a time to be silent and a
time to speak,
a time to love and a time to
hate,
a time for war and a time
for peace.
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