“When we feel utterly overwhelmed, comfort may sustain us but courage is often what we need to move forward.”

A thought by Kyle Idleman from his book, Don't Give Up (p. 12). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Maybe this is where you are today.

Kyle says, “As a pastor, I’ve discovered that some variation of ‘Don’t give up’ is the message most people need to hear, although I have found that my tone isn’t always the same.

“Sometimes I say it with a kind of gentle tone. Let’s call it the Mister Rogers approach. Sometimes struggling people need to be comforted. That means a warm smile, a soft voice, and an awesome sweater jacket like Mister Rogers wore. This kind of encouragement to not give up usually includes pats on the back and statements such as: I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. You’ve been through so much. I don’t know how you’ve kept going. It’s not fair, and it’s not your fault. Things are going to work out. You’ll see.

“People like to hear things like that. In fact, if you picked up this book because its title is Don’t Give Up, then chances are these are the things you want me to say to you. But here’s what I’ve realized. Sometimes, when we feel like giving up, what we want is Mister Rogers to come knock on our door—but what we need is William Wallace.

“Who is William Wallace? You saw Braveheart, right? That’s his story, and I don’t remember him wearing any sky-blue sweater jackets or white tennis shoes. He’s not a hug-it-out guy, telling you to cheer up. No, this guy paints his face like a hardcore football fan. He grabs you by the shoulder, and he says—even growls—stuff like this:

“This is not the time to give up and go home! It’s time to fight! Don’t you dare back down! You’re tired. You’re discouraged. But don’t give up!”

Kyle then says, “When we’re right on the edge of quitting, when we’re beaten down, when we feel utterly overwhelmed, comfort may sustain us but courage is often what we need to move forward. It gets us taking back the ground we’ve lost in the battle.”

He continues, “I don’t know which one you need. The blue sweater guy or the blue face guy. Probably a little bit of both. But I’ve discovered that many of us have some voices of comfort in our lives yet what we really need is a voice of courage. We may feel the need for sympathy when what we really need is strength.”

So, could what we really want is comfort but what we really need is courage?  Could that be true?

Yes, yes!