Brave Heart
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23
I’m old enough to have seen the film Brave Heart when it released in theaters in 1995. At one point all the clans come together at a place called Stirling to confront the invading English army. The ragtag Scots—farmers and old men—are out-numbered with vastly inferior weaponry. Arrayed across a long green field is the mighty English heavy calvary and scores of infantry and archers. Many of the clans begin to leave, not wanting to throw their lives away for their Scottish lords.
When Scots rebel William Wallace asks the crowd why they won’t fight, a man says, “Because if we fight, we die.” At which point Wallace says, “Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live—at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”
As I read that speech—even after seeing the movie a dozen times—it raises the hairs on the back of my neck. Why? I think it’s because we all want to live for something bigger than ourselves. And nothing is bigger than living for Christ because living for him is about dying to self, the world, and its material ambitions—for a far better cause. John tells us that “the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).
God makes it clear to us in His new covenant, the New Testament, that we can now accept His unconditional, perfect love through faith. He has placed His Holy Spirit in each of us who have accepted his love. The very fact that Jesus called the Holy Spirit our helper indicates that we are dependent on him to provide each of us a Brave Heart, so stay in contact with him.
Father, thanks for allowing me to possess a Brave Heart; not by my might or power but the power you have provided me.