God’s Invitation to Courage

For most of my life, I didn’t realize I was scared of heights.  

Had I known that helpful tidbit, I might have understood why riding on my dad’s shoulders, swinging on a tire swing, or peering down from a sky-high diving board sent a shiver down my spine.  

Because I didn’t know that, I wondered at the terror overtaking me one hot midsummer day as I watched the monstrous rollercoaster train screaming along its track. All around me, amusement park patrons bustled and buzzed with anticipation, but I sat frozen on a park bench, debating if I should attempt the thrilling ride. 

Enter my dad. Meandering over to the bench, leaning down beside me, raising his eyebrows over aviator sunglasses, whispering four deadly words: “You should try it.” 

My father is a thrill-seeker – the kind of man who finds it “fun” to jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet, get himself spooked in a haunted house, or ride a metallic death trap of a rollercoaster with his hands in the air. But me? I like to play it safe. Where my adventurous dad seeks new foods to enjoy, places to explore, and experiences to try, I order my “regulars,” frequent my favorite places, and pursue hobbies I know I’m comfortable with and good at. 

While it sometimes clashes with my caution, the spirit of challenge my dad brings into my life actually helps me grow as a person. Surely you can relate. For many of us, the scariest, most out-of-our-comfort-zone things we do are prompted by the fathers and father figures in our lives…and somehow, those things helped make us who we are.   

I can’t help but compare this same phenomenon to our Heavenly Father. He may not be challenging us to ride a rollercoaster, but He challenges us in other ways: being radically kind in a negative world, enduring difficult seasons, and even boldly telling others about Him. Yet where we often view our earthly fathers’ correction and guidance as helpful (at least in retrospect), sometimes we look at our Heavenly Father’s correction and guidance as malevolent.   

The more I think about this, the more I wonder…why? Why does the latter seem so different to us when, really, the first is meant to reflect the second? In other words, what if loving and respecting our earthly fathers isn’t just a commandment we’re supposed to follow? What if it’s also a real-time display of our relationship with God?  

As we celebrate our dads this Father’s Day, here are three ways we can be children who mirror God’s love to a watching world: 

1. Live Out of Your Identity

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines “identity” as “…the distinguishing character or personality of an individual.” In a culture overwhelmed with identity crisis, some hinge their value and worth on other people’s opinions, approval, and validation, living for likes and follows. Others rely on their own strength to get by. Still others chase fulfillment in lifestyles or religions that count on the individual’s ability to achieve. 

God created us to have relationships, set goals, and use the gifts He’s given us, but He never intended us to build our foundations on people, pastimes, and principles that will inevitably come to nothing. Luckily, we have a chance to tell a different story.  

Scripture reminds us, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Because of Christ’s work on the cross, our identity is no longer founded in the shifting sands of our society. Now, we’re His children, offered the opportunity to make Him the defining characteristic of our lives so we can grow in Him, rather than seeking His approval.  

2. Depend on God

Like many five or six-year-olds, I loved riding my bike as a little girl. My training wheels clattered along the pavement as I rattled confidently up and down our street. Then, one day, that all changed. As I clanked around, my dad waved me over to where he knelt in the driveway, holding a wrench. My stomach dropped as he declared, “Let’s take off your training wheels.”  

For a fan of the familiar, this was a nightmare. Watching my dad remove my precious safeguards, I pictured everything that could go wrong…and though some of those scenarios didn’t happen, others did. I never broke anything or ran into a tree, but time and again, I fell down, procured a bloody knee, or shed frustrated, frightened tears.  

But my dad stuck with me through it all, and our Heavenly Father works the same way. When He challenges us to step out of our comfort zone, our natural response is to balk at the change. But just as I never would have removed my training wheels had my dad not intervened, God sometimes eliminates things in our lives that hold us back – things that, if removed, could lead to greater growth.  

Proverbs 3:5 reminds us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Trusting God requires us to believe that He sees the bird’s-eye view of our situation, while we only see what’s directly in front of us. And being free of the need to control? That brings us greater peace, joy, and hope.  

3. Love Others

Our cultural perception of love is drawn from media that often portrays love as warm, fuzzy feelings. Anyone who’s read 1 Corinthians 13, however, can tell you that God’s kind of love isn’t exactly a warm, fuzzy feelings kind of love: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude…Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5, 7-8a).  

Genuine love isn’t just a conviction; it’s a commitment. We’re called to put others above ourselves to the point of giving up our lives for them (John 15:13). Loving others how God commands requires us to understand that everyone around us is created in the image of a loving Father. Every soul reflects His creativity and affection. Every being is one He died to save. The least we can do in response to all He’s done is show a glimpse of that same unrelenting love to those around us.   

That fateful day in the amusement park, against my better judgment, I found myself waiting in line for the rollercoaster. Beside me stood my dad, patiently listening to my worried comments and offering frequent assurances. 

I sucked in frantic breaths as we slid into our seats and the metal lap bar clanged down. Slowly, agonizingly, the cars clacked forward and crept up the hill. “This is it!” Dad grinned and nudged me with his elbow. 

The train crested the hill. 
Click-click-click. 

For one terrible moment, we teetered at the summit. Dad threw his hands in the air and cheered. I white-knuckled the lap bar and tried not to look down. Then, suddenly, the wonders of physics kicked in, and that first car picked up momentum, dragging the rest behind. I screamed shrilly as the loop-de-loops and hills and tight turns swept us away. But after a moment, my screams turned to laughter. By the end of the dizzying ride, I was smiling. 

Dad leaned over, eyebrows raised once more, and remarked, “See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” My dad knew what he was doing that day. And we can rest in the confidence that our Heavenly Father knows what He’s doing, too, no matter how things look from down here. He never allows us to endure pain without a purpose.  

The apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose for them.” If it’s not good, then He’s not done. Keep trusting, hoping, loving. And who knows? Maybe you’ll even enjoy the ride along the way.