Ben's Slow At Posting

Well I guess by now it is easy to tell who is new at the concept of blogging (me), so this first post may be a little longer and a little more serious to make up some lost ground. As I have been preparing for our trip I conciously kept in the back of my mind why I applied to go in the first place. Yes it sounded adventurous, rewarding, and completely right up my alley but at the same time it was the type of trip I had been hiding from for years. Since coming to college I have felt the Lord tugging at my arm to step out and do something like this but I had always been too nervous to answer the call. My roomate recently shared a chapter in a book he is reading on leadership with me and I found it helped describe this a little better. It is rather long but I urge you to read it all because it is something that can be applied in all of our daily lives as Christ has called all of us to be leaders in this world for him.
Perhaps the best way to understand courage is to define its opposite state. Some would say the antithesis of courage is “cowardliness”…avoiding (or succumbing to) pressure, difficulty, and danger. Others would say “fear”…being afraid to do the right thing when the going gets tough. Certainly, both of those answers are logical and appropriate. But there’s another description of the opposite of courage-one not as commonly thought of, although equally valid. That description is “conformity”…letting things be the way they have always been because of the high price associated with changing them. As a leader, you need courage to do what needs to be done… to do what you know is the right thing. There will always be those who tell you you’re wrong- even when you’re thoroughly convinced that you’re right. There will always be those tempting you to take an easier and less resistant path. And, there will always be those who- either unintentionally or purposefully –create obstacles that will challenge your mettle. Even the very best leaders must regularly pass the courage test. Courage is about having the guts, nerve, and heart to do the things that foster and support progress. And that begins with the realization that: 1) improvement won’t be found on the path of least resistance known as conformity, and 2) status quo is the archenemy of progress. When you think about it “doing things the way we’ve always done them” requires no leadership at all. What is there to lead to? How can others follow someone who’s not going anywhere? That’s why “leadership” and “courage” must be viewed as synonymous concepts.
After reading this, I wouldn't so much describe what I was feeling before as being afraid, but rather being too comfortable at where I was. Jon Piper put it best when he wrote, "The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing." It was time for me to finally step out of the boat and not look down. It was time for me to finally listen to my master.