Why Bravery?
Finding, Fighting, and Conquering Dragons
Who are the brave men of history? When it comes to courage or bravery, it's easy to think of an infantryman, wielding a gun and rushing into battle. Or a small, young shepherd stepping onto a field, declaring God to be on his side, before crushing the giant with nothing more than a small, smooth stone. Or Aragorn, after delivering one of the best speeches in cinematic history, saying to his comrades, "For Frodo!", before rushing into battle. Or some other awesome person, rushing into battle. It's difficult to not conflate the idea of bravery and war, specifically heroism in war. And the connection makes sense: war is a terrifying and frightening, thing. Anyone who steps onto a battlefield must have a tremendous amount of courage. And even more so for the people who then led the charge of those soldiers. But most people will never be required to step onto a battlefield, nor have they been required too. This is true today and historically. Yet, courage is considered one of the cardinal virtues, established by the ancient philosophers of old. Courage has been regarded as a virtue for time immemorial, across all societies. How is it, then, that one can be expected to be courageous when we associate courage and bravery with being restricted to the war front? It isn't true. It can't be true. Bravery is courage, courage is bravery. And one can be brave in the small things, or courageous in the big things. Regardless of the context: Bravery is bravery.
Bravery is a virtue because it's called upon to fight and conquer enemies, big or small, friend or foe. The terrifying dragon must be defeated, and it takes a lot of courage to face it. But sometimes the dragon we were terrified of was nothing more than a small beast, magnified by the perceptions of our fears. But a dragon is a dragon. And, as Jordan Peterson says, "you must go to the dragon's lair and attack it there before it can cause harm to your village." Which is to say cultivate the courage to face a dragon on your own terms, because if push comes to shove, a dragon comes to you, then everything you've built in your life will be threatened by its mere presence. The village represents your life: people, career, creative endeavors, etc. The dragon represents anything that looms in the background and threatens your village: your past, poor relationship with truth, anger, envy, covet, or anything else you could conceive of.
We all have a dragon. We all have a village to protect. Courage is had when you choose to confront the dragon, despite the risk, or fear, or anything else that is preventing you from doing so. Sometimes a dragon confronts someone for their dishonesty. Sometimes a dragon is your addiction to pornography. Or any addiction, for that matter. The point is that the dragon takes many different forms in your life, and they have a habit of showing up at the worst time, destroying everything in their wake.
Will you confront the dragon before it comes to harm your village?
If the answer is, "Yes, but I don't know how" then you've come to the right place. Lord knows (and my wife, for that matter) I've had to deal with several dragons of my own. In years past, they've come to attack my village. But no more. Now, I snuff them out. The second I learned about their existence, my goal and my aim were to hunt them down and destroy them. I won't let the addiction dragon sneak back into my village. I won't let the dishonesty dragon come into my life. I know what it takes. And it's hard.
The first step in confronting a dragon is to get to know the enemy: do some reconnaissance. Know what you're up against, and then define it clearly. For example, you know you have a problem with your temper. Initially, that looks something like, "I lose my cool, but I don't mean to." And that isn't gonna fly. That's vague, and therefore completely useless. A much more useful observation would look more like, "I lose my temper when this thing happens". The trigger and cause need to be identified in order for the assessment to be useful. This step is complete when you are aware of the dragon coming from far, far away.
After that, get your battle plan ready. Because you know yourself and your enemy, you can align your strengths against the dragon's weaknesses, and keep your weaknesses hidden. The best battle plan, or the only successful one for that matter, is the one where you leave your village. You hunt the dragon to its lair; find it and confront it. But in order to confront it successfully, you need to know your plan of attack, and what to do when the dragon gets the upper hand. A temporary defeat is not a loss. Going back to the "losing your cool" example, perhaps walking away from a situation. It hurts our pride to walk away. That's the advice they give to children, right? Why would an adult need to walk away? But let me ask you this: Is it better to walk away and injure your pride, or to stay put, let your anger get the best of you, and say things you never thought you would say to people who mean the most to you? An effective battle plan includes knowing the weaknesses of the dragon, but your own too, so you can take the necessary steps to prevent the worst.
The final step is to know what victory actually looks like. Just like with the dragon, you don't define victory, or the dragon: it comes to you, and you just need to figure it out. Again, you need to define it. Spoiler: it won't look like what you think it will look like. With my anger problems, I always think that if I am heard, which means raising my voice, then I will finally be understood. But that isn't it. When I take a breath, and defeat the dragon, I realize that I am able to use a calm voice to get my point across, and I'm heard and understood much better and clearer than I ever was or could have been before.
You need to be brave. It takes real courage and sacrifice to look into the mirror to find the dragons of your life. It's easy to point out the flaws in others, but what about your own? It isn't easy. It's the same thing when Jesus tells us to focus on the PLANK in our own eye rather than the SPECK in a brother's eye. Take courage, take heart. Put a stout heart to a difficult hill. Choose bravery, define the dragon, conquer it, and become a victor.