Bravery is often attached to the big things, the wow moments and the risk-taking choices. Bravery looks like being a missionary overseas. Bravery walks into the hospital, applies for the dream job, and packs bags and boxes, daring to go where no one knows your name.
But bravery is also getting out of bed in the morning when the world seems too dark.
Bravery looks like opening the tab to a blank page and writing out of obedience, even when you feel empty. Bravery looks like doubting your doubts and trusting He is the Answer and that will be enough.
I know bravery can be found in the big moments, but more and more I’m convinced that bravery looks like one million small moments of simply showing up.
When someone chooses to go, to pack it all up and set out on an adventure, we call them brave. And they are. But if you’ve chosen to stay, if you are doing your very best to simply show up and be all there, right where you are, wherever you are, you’re brave, too.
We’ve all got our hard and we’ve all got our brave. Your brave might not look like my brave, but that doesn’t make you any less brave.
For me, being brave looks like choosing to stay right here in Birmingham. (Or, as I lovingly call it, Birminghome.)
It sounds crazy, even to me, but staying here felt and still feels much riskier than setting out on a new adventure. I’ve said it before, but it’s still true: I wanted the adventure, the new-ness, and the big plans. They scared me, but they thrilled me even more. Packing up and moving somewhere totally new would have been the easy way out – for me – because He told me to stay.
And so as my friend Jen says, we choose to brave the stay. We stand still, sit down and hold on. And in the staying, we declare with our lives that we aren’t worried about comfort zones or taking the easy way out. We’re more interested in being where He has called us, trusting He is with us right there and always. Truthfully, I think comfort zones need to be redefined because we are always with the Comforter. But that’s just me and this is just my brave.
Stay. Go. Show up. Shut it down. Write. Speak. Make the call. Delete the number.
You are braver than you know.
Related: This Is My Brave