This past Sunday, we had a lively discussion about our second Summer Reads book, How We Learn To Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, by the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington. In her book, Bishop Budde finds hope and strength by drawing on both her own experiences and those of biblical figures and more modern-day exemplars in learning to be brave.
In the book’s chapters, she explores not just the type of courage we might often imagine, such as “Stepping Up to the Plate” or “Deciding to Go,” but also often-overlooked forms of bravery that include, “Deciding to Stay,” “Accepting What You Do Not Choose,” and “Perseverance.” Throughout, Bishop Budde emphasizes that we often must learn to be brave − and sometimes that learning comes from our own painful experiences of failure and disappointment. She also reminds us that many acts of courage happen quietly, out of the public eye, and many are part of a much larger communal movement toward justice.
In the last chapter, Bishop Budde quotes Reinhold Niebuhr, the public theologian who spent his life working for the values of gospel, including for the rights of workers and against the rise of fascism in Germany. Actually, she quotes Niebuhr twice, illustrating different aspects of his view of courage. First, there is his Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
The second quote is what we might see as Niebuhr’s call to communal courage and perseverance: “Nothing worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing that is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing that we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.”
May Niebuhr, and Bishop Budde, inspire us to learn a little more about being brave in our community and in our own lives!
