In the movie, “Wizard of Oz” the cowardly lion says, “What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk?” Just the cowardly lion has multiple iterations of the word, when we think of the word “courage” we find ourselves questioning the intrinsic value because all of the connotations and implications surrounding the word. But we know that the “right” partner is somebody who embodies a visible courage and an invisible faith charging his or her own courageous action. Today I want to radically redefine what an act of courage is. The reason I want to do this is because we often overlook practical, everyday courage that can be embodied by those of us who are seemingly weak by the world’s standards. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger? – 2 Corinthians 11:29 What does this statement made by the Apostle Paul mean? Isn’t this just empathy? Isn’t it just jealousy? It may seem that way; but I dare you to ask whether you ever had these feelings and thoughts and done anything about them. The reality is that we probably felt these things at some point but was petrified from the thought of them and did nothing. So we are cowardly and constantly not courageous. In the Book of Hebrews we learn Jesus was so courageous that he embodied humanity to walk in our shoes and amongst our sin and through the world as we experience the fallenness of it. This becomes our model of courage, to embody the weakness of those feeling weak and to walk with them and to journey through life with them. I am not saying we need to be weak for them, but I am saying we need to embrace the weakness of them and work at it with them. This is everyday courage. It is a courage that loses itself in the lives of people and finds strength to persevere through it together. Courage is the anger rising out of love for another person which does more than allow somebody make bad decisions. It is the move towards intervention in spite of feelings being hurt. We been there, standing in between friendships and somebody’s self destruction, we need to do something and be the “right” partner for them in their circumstances. The cowardly lion concludes his monologue, “What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage!… What have they got that I ain’t got?” If you can’t find yourself walking with the weak around you, you have no courage. If you can’t be angry enough to correct somebody close to you, then you have no courage. I write this for people like me, who don’t care enough and don’t want to be bothered by other people on most days– have courage and be the “right” partner for somebody who desperately is crying out for one.