Take Courage from a “Rose”

I know I’ve talked before about the courage of a lioness and I’ve probably mentioned Rose, but have I told you the kind of courage her spirit possesses?

I spent endless hours with Rose when I was sick. She is a widow and retired (although her social schedule is busier than mine) and gave willingly and sacrificially to my family. My husband worked and travelled alot, so she would have bunking parties at my house, so I didn’t have to suffer alone and worry something would happen to my kids who were 3 and 5 at the time.

I knew Rose from church and had attended bible study with her, but before I was sick I would call her a mentor. After the hours of endless conversation, tears and laughter, I call her now my heart friend. She helped with bath time, bed time, meals, dishes and even played endless hours of Candyland and football in the backyard. There are many who held us up during the darkest days, but we relied heavily upon Rose.

Having her around was more than helpful, it invigorated HOPE in our household. Rose oozes hope, love and laughter. She is full of stories and wisdom. And she bursts into song at all moments, mostly the unexpected.

Did I mention that she is now 85? Guess where she is right now? Africa. Yep, that is right. God told her to go on a 2 week mission trip to Africa and she made all the plans and did all the packing and God did the rest. She told me years ago at a revival, she answered the call to say “Yes” to God when he called her to go. Since I’ve known her, she has been to Hondurus, Mexico, Israel and now Africa.

Before meeting Rose, I had a different definition of courage. In my mind it looked like a battlefield and felt like going in against all odds. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes courage is hero forming and looks like that. But now I know something different about courage. Courage is found in every properly placed “yes” and every properly placed “no”.

It takes courage in our culture to say “no” to things of this world and “yes” to quality family time.

It takes courage to say “yes” to feeding the poor and hungry when it is inconvenient in light of our selfishness.

It takes courage to do the small but so very important things like tucking your kids in bed every night and asking questions about school and how they feel and snuggling them.

In chronic illness, it takes courage to swim upstream and do “unorthodox” treatments. It takes courage to go gluten free and start a garden. Quite frankly, it took courage sometimes for me to just climb the stairs or change the sheets. I never knew how much energy I had in the tank, so it was all a risk.

Rose tells the most hilarious story about her mission trip to Honduras. There was a big zipline through the jungle they got to go to as a team before they left the country. One of the ladies asked Rose if she was scared to die on that giant zipline. Rose simply replied with a giggle “My late husband Chuck was always trying to get me to try a zipline and I never had the courage to do it. If I die on this zipline, the first person I will see after Jesus is Chuck, telling me I’m so proud of you Rose Marie for finally trying a zipline. I can’t think of a better way to go than that.”

That is how loosely I want to hold onto this world and its various adventures. I know I have a job to do and a witness to bear, but it is not for me to control or hold onto too tight. I need to have courage to take a step or two and fall flat on my face and laugh about it. I need to take things not so seriously because in a breath they will be gone. I need to hug twice the things that are precious to me because in a breath they can be gone. I need to have the courage to love completely without hesitation and without doubt.

In this photo of my Rose, we were pray walking around the park one day and it got hot. She promptly kept praying, took off her sandals and walked straight in the lake to cool off – not missing a beat talking with Jesus. As I took the picture, her laugter rang out across the still water, filled with joy in her abandon in this life. That is the abandon I chase after, to capture joy in each forbidden and unforeseen moment.

Have courage and look for your ziplines in this life.

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27 NIV)

Blessings and healing,

Janice Fairbairn

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