Just Courage: God's Great Expedition for the Restless Christian, by Gary Haugen, spoke directly to the person that I find myself to be: a restless Christian.

It's interesting, because many times in the past year I have spoken to my husband about this feeling I have of being prepared by God for something MORE than I am doing, like I am standing at the crossroads of something important or there is a movement starting that I am supposed to be a part of, but I don't know where or what it is. After the pull to move forward, I've always been unclear of where to go. It is so frustrating to be filled up with something and have no idea what to pour that something into. It's maddening, to have desire, but no direction. Thankfully, I feel like God answered my prayers a little with Just Courage, and painted me an arrow.

Two Scripture passages, Isaiah 58 and Micah 6:8, are ideas that God has continually brought me back to and rooted in my mind and my heart, and both are used repeatedly throughout this book. Basically, they summarize the idea that God doesn't desire our "religion" and our "ceremony," He desires love and action and a willingness in us to battle for what is good. Just Courage backed that idea up and gave examples of people who are currently fighting for much-needed justice in our world, and it was like breathing in a gust of fresh air.

Another idea that was encouraging to read about in Just Courage was the concept that Jesus is NOT boring, and that He doesn't expect Christianity or our lives to be either. Jesus calls us to be brave, and it is an adventure to follow Him. I love that, because Jesus has never seemed quiet or safe or mediocre to me, and the description of Him as a passionate leader and fighter of justice seems much more fitting to what He is and has been for me in my own personal experience.

Just Courage sums up this idea perfectly with the C.S. Lewis quote that alludes to Jesus this way; "Of course He's not safe, but He's good."

I like that. Jesus calls us to a life of incredible blessing, but He also requires of us great risk and personal sacrifice. More and more I find myself desiring the risk just as much as the blessing. I want to experience all of it, not just the soft stuff. I want to know and follow the REAL Jesus, not the one that we've created Him to be.

I want to be brave.


"For I did not give you a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline." (The words of God through 1Timothy).