Where does courage come from? What would it look like in
you? Christiane Amanpour’s interview with Malala Yousafzai and Malala’s father (CNN
Sunday, October 13th) showed us courage – what it can look like and
how it is nurtured. Not everyone will experience being shot on the school bus,
so it is tempting to think that Malala’s steadfastness, grace, humility and
passionate compassion is somehow unique to her. In a sense, it is, of course,
because of the circumstances and because of her own giftedness as a human
being. But we are all gifted human beings. We can all be brave if we know where
and how to look for courage in ourselves.
It took at least two other people to nurture Malala’s gift,
her parents and probably other members of her extended family. We only caught a
glimpse of her mother on the programme but Malala’s relationship with her
appears to be quintessentially normal – a healthy loving relationship which any
young adolescent girl might have with her mother. But Malala’s father seems
to have had the greater influence over her life so far, although the word ‘influence’
barely does justice to the courage he must have had to draw on, in order to
raise his children with such integrity and unswerving loyalty to truth.
Truth is what drives courage because truth proceeds
directly from the love which is of God. Christians see this love in the person
of Jesus and in the relationship of trust which he had with the Father. When a
person is loved unconditionally by their parents they will be experiencing
something of God’s love. It will have taught them to tell the difference
between what is true and what is a lie, especially when the lie is dressed up
as true religion. They will learn to feel passionately about truth and about
the freedom needed for truth to prevail over lies. These are the lies which
deny and obscure God’s love for his people, and all people are God’s people,
whatever religious path they follow. So a lie is recognised for what it is because it
jars with the kind of truth which proceeds from the unconditional love of God.
Malala will have learned through the courage and
integrity of her parents, especially of her father, how to tell the difference
between what is a lie and what is true. Her upbringing will have taught her
that perverted religion goes against love. Where religion systematically crushes
the life out of people, it cannot be true and should be resisted with
everything one has to give. This is courage. Even the smallest degree of courage
involves holding to the kind of truth which is life giving and therefore of
love. It comes at a price. It is not just a matter of doing the right thing,
because courage is more than a virtue to be honed and developed through hard ‘character
building’ work. It is about laying claim to our full humanity in whatever
testing circumstances we may be in. Malala’s testing circumstances were not
what most of us have to face on a daily basis, unlike those who are caught up in
the cross fire of war or of lawless anarchy.
Our own testing moments are often so small that we fail
to notice them and only later regret not having spoken the necessary word, or
taken a decision which might have cost us personally, in order to prevent an injustice
at work or in family life. When we are required to show courage it is our
humanity which is being tested and our humanity is known in the fullness of our
love and in the integrity of our faith. In the integrity of her own faith, Malala resisted
threats, intimidation and lies so that others might know what courage looks
like, and where to find it in themselves when they need it.
No comments:
Post a Comment