Bravery

For a few weeks I've been mulling over the word Brave.  Bravery.  Courage.  Guts.  What do these things look like and where to do they come from?

I watched Band of Brothers (for the 4th time, I think) recently and all I could think was, "There are bullets everywhere; how do they keep on running forwards? Why not hide or scream or retreat?"  What is it that those men, many really just boys, had to give them courage to fight?  With the benefit of hindsight, we can see what an evil they were fighting, but certainly E Company had no knowledge of concentration camps until they stumbled upon one in the woods.  Is it the training, mixed with the camaraderie of knowing you have to keep your buddies alive?  Is it some sort of animal instinct to survive, even if that means entering danger and killing others?

Then I've been reading the Hunger Games.  All 3 books in about 5 days.  On the outside, Katniss seems so brave, but her thoughts confess to confusion, doubt, fear, anger.  In a web of games that she has been caught in, she is trying to play her hand in the way that best protects those she loves.  Is she brave?

To my mind, the Hunger Games is a brutally accurate social commentary.  It's fairly obvious, but let's just spell it out: we are 'The Capitol', extorting food from poorer regions, making those regions our effective slaves, lavishing ourselves with clothes, food, luxuries we don't need whilst others walk in bare feet and with empty stomachs.  In the book, it's so easy to hate the Capitol, not only for the obvious horror of the Games themselves, but for the 'background' horror of greed, self-centredness, vanity and disengagement shown by the people there.  How many of them care that someone else might need just one roll, when they are throwing up a whole meal in order to gorge on more food?  How many of us care that the £2 we spend on chocolate each week could probably feed a small family for a week, elsewhere in the world?

So maybe there's a different level of bravery.  It comes from the same place but it's Low Level.  Not so obvious, but just as important.

It's a bravery that says, "Actually, I don't care if my clothes aren't the newest fashion, because that £20 jumper will be nice, but £20 for medical supplies is money better spent."  Courage says, "I'm going to care less about me and my looks and my food and my hobbies and my problems - and care more about the 12.5% of the world who'll go to bed hungry tonight."  Guts says, "I want to live a different life.  One that doesn't end up like The Capitol but ends up like the Kingdom of God.  Generosity, kindness, humility, engagement."

Sounds a lot like Jesus - generous enough to give his own life; kind enough to engage with everyone, whoever they were, to teach, to heal, to forgive; humble enough to be born as a helpless baby; definitely engaged with the world, and with its people, and with their future.  And absolutely, brave.