Lucy, Portrait of Courage

It is a sad thing that we consider it an insult to call someone a "little girl". 

I had the privelege of speaking to the Provincial Correctional Chaplains this week.  I chose to use one of my favorite characters from literature to illustrate the posture of people who find the counter-cultural courage to go beyond themselves to help others.  These are some excerpts of my message.

In the first chapter of "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" we encountner Lucy, the youngest of four siblings exploring a house they are living in.  The four children have come from war-torn London, to a country home full of empty rooms.

'"Nothing there" said Peter, and they all trooped out again -  all except Lucy.  She stayed behind because she thought it would be worthwhile trying the door of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure it would be locked.

Stop...read it again!

"She stayed behind."  I love it!  When others are running from room to room she stays behind.  There are echoes of Mary and Martha here. Stay behind and there will almost certainly be silence and solitude.  If you look at the paragraph before it mentions there was nothing in the room but a wardrobe and a dead fly on the windowsill.  Silence and solitude prepare us for adventure and reframe the problem we face.

"She thought it would be worth trying the door of the Wardrobe." Curiosity and a sense of adventure can compell us to move ahead in our risk-averse society.  It can help us step forward when others are paralyzed.

"Even though she felt almost sure it would be locked."  Some of us assume doors are locked...even when they aren't.  How will we know unless we try.  Here the words of Jesus, "Knock and the door shall be opened unto you".

What follows is an adventure. A clash between good and evil.  An encounter with a living God.  The next paragraph has powerful action-filled words..."She immediatly stepped into the wardrobe", "She went further in..." and most interesting of all the author says, "It was ALMOST quite dark in there". Did you see that...he didn't say it was dark, it was almost dark.  Where courage is, the light never completely goes out.

Another courageous person, Amy Carmichael, Missionary to India said :

If I am afraid to speak the truth lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, "You do not understand", or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other's highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love. ~Amy Carmichael

The people we are surrounded by find courage in dark places.  Take heart!  The work we do calls us to courage.

- Dave Grauwiler is the Executive Director of The Mustard Seed, Northern Alberta

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