COURAGE: Three Men - Three Stories

COURAGE is fear that has said its prayers.

An auto racer who set the world speed record. A fighter pilot who recorded the most aerial - combat victories against the Germans in World War 1. A man who survived a plane crash and spent twenty-two days on raft in the Pacific Ocean. What do these three have in have in common?

They are all the same person: Eddie Rickenbacker. When Eddie was twelve, his father died. So Eddie quit school to become the family breadwinner, doing whatever he had to do to help the family survive.

As a teen, he started working as a race car mechanic. By the time he was twenty - two, he, himself, was racing. Two years later, he set the world speed record at Daytona.

When World War 1 began, Eddie tried to enlist as an aviator but was told that he was over-aged and under-educated. He eventually talked his superiors into sending him to flight training. By the war's end, he had logged 300 combat hours and survived 134 aerial encounters, shooting down twenty six enemy planes.

When asked the secret to his success, Rickenbacker cited courage. "Courage," he told them, " is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."

Fear is natural. It can overcome you, or you can say, as Eddie Rickenbacker did a thousand times, "I'll fight like a wildcat!"

-- Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.  Deuteronomy 31:6 --

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One person with COURAGE makes a majority.

A nineteenth-century preacher named Peter Cartwright was preparing his sermon on Sunday wen he was warned that U.S. President Andrew Jackson would be in the congregation. He was told to keep his remarks benign, so as not to offend the president.

During his message, Cartwright acknowledged his famous guest. "I have been told that Andrew Jackson is in the congregation," he said. "And I have been asked to guard my remarks. What must I say is that Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn't repent of his sin."

Some people in the audience cringed. Others gasped. What would become of this outspoken pastor? What penalty might he face?

After the service, Jackson strode up to Cartwright. The noble preacher stood his ground. "Sir," the president said, "if I had a regiment of men like you, I could whip the world."

It's not always easy to speak the truth, especially if you're intimidated by the size or import of your audience. It's much easier to say what we believe people--especially our superiors--will want to hear. When you don't say what you truly believe, not only are you speaking untruthfully to others, but you are betraying your own ideas and convictions. Speak what you believe - the results of such honesty might just surprise you.

-- The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy. Proverbs 12:22 --

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The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

Gene was a great amateur boxer. He possessed a great knockout power in both hands and was destined to become a top professional pugilist. But before turning pro, he broke both his hands. He would never be able to punch with power the once possessed. Both his doctor and his manager told him he would never become a world champion.

Gene Tunney didn't listen to them. He believed he could excel at his profession, despite the major obstacle he encountered. "If I can't become a champion as a (power) puncher," he said, "I'll make it as a boxer."

So Tunney, knowing that he could no longer rely on his knockout power, set out to perfect his boxing skills. He learned to bob and weave and throw accurate -- albeit less potent -- punches.

In one of the biggest fights of his career, Tunney faced Jack Dempsey, known as the Manassa Mauler, a man with feared knockout power. But, using the skills he might not have developed if not for the injury, Tunney outboxed Dempsey and became the heavy-weight champion of the world.

Life might alter the path you take to success, just as it did to Gene Tunney. But that doesn't mean you can't still get to where you want to go.

-- The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11 --