The Courage That Begins Already Licked

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch teaches his son Jem one of the most profound lessons about courage in all of American literature — and he does it through the most unlikely teacher. Old Mrs. Dubose, the cantankerous neighbor who hurls insults from her porch, has been secretly fighting to break free from a morphine addiction before she dies. She knows the withdrawal will be agonizing. She knows she is dying regardless. She fights anyway.

After her death, Atticus tells Jem, "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what."

That definition should stop every one of us in our tracks, because it sounds remarkably like faith. When Joshua stood at the edge of the Promised Land, the giants were real. When Esther walked into the king's throne room uninvited, the law that could kill her was real. When Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem, the cross was real.

The Almighty has never promised His people that obedience would be easy. He promised something better — that He would be present. Real courage is not the absence of fear or even the likelihood of victory. It is beginning anyway because the God who calls you forward has never once failed to walk with you through.