NEEDED: COURAGE!

Poco turned fourteen on Tuesday. I remember when I was fourteen. It was a hard, yet a growing within and up kind of year. Our family was adjusting to a small rented house in Decatur, Georgia. But even more from Daddy being a pastor to selling Nutrilite vitamins to provide for our family. Mama was a nurse and I got a job, at age 14, in a local Five and Dime store. Life was just OK.

But late August meant time to enter another new school. So trumpet case in hand, I entered Avondale High School as a ninth grader with hopes of making the band. And I did. But tooting a trumpet did not make a girl cool, like being a cheerleader or majorette. But I met Marilyn, who played clarinet and also was a drum majorette. She had long blonde hair and the first to welcome me to the band and the high school. She was a 10th grader. I felt almost "in".

To be sure, as a former preacher's kid, I knew how to blend in, be kind and to care about more than myself.And that helped bridge me into high school, as did belonging to The Band. We marched at football games. Did some fancy footwork, and for a Baptist preacher's kid, that's as close to dancing as I got back then.

But I was a skinny, flat chested girl in a big-boob world. And I worried about my family and what was next for us. And then I caught a bug. So stayed home from school for a week. One day I heard the doorbell ring. No one was home, so I rose from my bed in nubby flannel pajamas and mussed hair to answer the door. And there stood Marilyn and her boyfriend, Hugh, the quarterback of the HS football team! Holy help! They held a gift for me. I was stunned. Marilyn and I were friends at school and in the band, but nothing deeper. But their presence and gift were heaven sent.

So why me? Why them? And why the gift? Jesus. Now, don't laugh. But I think Jesus knew how scared and lonely I was. And how I was trying to be part of the solution for my family, taking on more than I needed to on my shoulders, as the eldest child. And I believe, Jesus tapped two cool kids to show up on my front porch with a gift of extravagant love. The gift? It was a stuffed animal. A lion. Remember the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz. What did he need? Courage. Well, that was me back then. And today, too. Often.

So Tuesday night, what do you think my gift was to Poco for her 14th birthday? Yup, a stuffed lion with this story to go with it. These are hard times to be a child, teenager, an adult, an immigrant, different in some way or an older person. Fear, distrust and anger flood social media and other sources. Opinions, lies, distortions, manipulated images, tribes comfort and bind, well-intended warnings and threats pummel us. We need an infusion of courage and trust that God is awake and the hosts of heaven are praying for us. We aren't alone.

And so, I pray as I write, that you will take courage from this story and trust God to come in unexpected ways during your turbulent times. Years later, I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and met The Lion, Aslan. So, while Poco will name her own lion, to me, I gave her a reminder of Aslan and Jesus, the Lion of Judah, who sees, knows, and loves her. And will never leave her.

And so to any of you who worry or feel unseen or alone, may God show up somehow on the doorstep of your heart to surprise you with what God, alone, knows you need to help you press on. Looking back, I am so aware of God's faithfulness and care for me when I was fourteen. Seventy years later, finds me even more aware of God's faithfulness in tough times.

So today, when tempted to curl up and despair, or feel alone and discouraged, I recall these words to a frightened leader and people, "...be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."(Joshua 1:9, NLT) And, I pray you'll hear, when most needed, the words Aslan whispered to Lucy in C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, "Courage, dear heart."

Yes, Jesus still speaks.

Listen, be still.

"Courage, dear heart."