Debilitating Discouragement/Confident Courage
Courage pushes people past their limits to face seemingly insurmountable odds. Discouragement drowns people in hopelessness so that they cannot even face the smallest of challenges. Courage elevates; discouragement deflates. Courage drives people forward. Discouragement drags people backward. There is nothing that kills good work done by good workers more swiftly than discouragement.
The burden of discouragement is so overwhelming that one discouraging moment counteracts multiple successful campaigns. It does not matter how many good and successful moments there have been in the past, when discouragement enters the arena, that person or those persons are unable to concentrate on them. They see only the immediate discouraging moment.
There are a number of people in Scripture who faced discouragement. King David felt the pangs of discouragement. “For I am ready to fall and my sorrow is continually before me.” (Psalm 38:17). Solomon also felt them. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” (Proverbs 13:12). He was sick at his stomach.
Job certainly faced discouragement. He said in his last defense of himself after dealing with everything his friends had said to him, “And now my soul is poured out because of my plight; the days of affliction take hold of me. My bones are pierced in me at night and my gnawing pains take no rest. By great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about as the collar of my coat.” (Job 30:16-18).
However, these same people offered to their peers and to us through their stories the leadership of caring courage. They faced the discouragement and traversed its rocky path to lead us through their courageous journey.
David’s most discouraging moment was surely his sin with Bathsheba (II Samuel 11). When he was confronted by the prophet Nathan, he was immediately penitent. However, the child he had fathered by Bathsheba died. This is the moment that he displayed his courage. “So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes…” (II Samuel 12:20). His final words show his confident courage. “But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (II Samuel 12:23).
Solomon’s greatest discouragement was also about his own failures. He wrote the book of Ecclesiastes to confess and to provide help to anyone who failed like he did. He showed his courage by facing what he had done and admitting how wrong he had been. Then, he gave his final words of confident courage. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Job’s discouragement is surely understandable. He had faced Satan’s onslaught and God had allowed it. As the patriarch of his family, he had been accustomed to hearing from God so that he could lead them and inform them what God wanted them to know. Now, God was silent. Job wanted an answer from God about his plight. At the end, his courage was on display in his final words as he spoke to God. “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know.” (Job 42:3).
Leaders display confident courage when they trust God in their most discouraging moments.
— Mike Johnson
