Courage

This morning’s sermon was about courage, specifically in the context of social interactions.  I don’t usually see myself as lacking much in that regard, but it did feel applicable at the moment.

It does take courage to tell people things they don’t want to hear, which is something I find myself doing frequently.  And it takes courage to be different from those around you, which is pretty much a permanent state of being for me, but especially when working in Hollywood.  I usually don’t find myself too affected by those differences, the way some people do.  But recognizing the effect others there were having on me is one of the reasons I moved back North, which I don’t consider to be a lack of courage at all.

But the situations that I find myself needing to consciously summon up courage to deal with, are potential conflicts with those who I am closest to.  I have a few conversations I know I need to have with other people, that I hesitate to initiate, either because I know they will not approve of my approach to things, or because I know they have a very different perspective than I do.

But avoiding conflict is very rarely a good solution to potential problems, and putting off dealing with things usually makes them worse.  Ironically in my case, one of the key issues in question is how soon to do certain things, so putting off those discussions actually could make them easier when they do happen.  But others I need to jump on sooner rather than later.  It just takes courage to take that first step, knowing that either the outcome, or even just the process, could be challenging to deal with.