Proof and evidence

 

What is the proof that you are waiting for?

There is no constructed instrument by which we can determine, no calibrated scale by which we can measure, courage. We can demonstrate the effect of the need for courage and of the act of courage on the body, but not the existence of courage. And yet we know that courage exists.

We know, each time we walk away from an abusive relationship. Each time we refuse to walk away from a relationship that is hard work and, at this moment in time, unrewarding. Each time we ask for forgiveness of another, or of ourselves.

Courage exists. There is plenty of evidence for this. The world is full of evidence.

And yet, there is no instrument, and no agreed scale. There is, of course, the court of public opinion. But the observer is not an especially reliable instrument or scale, for what requires much courage to one person requires little to the next. It requires courage of me to cross a bridge, something others do without it crossing their mind. Neither is the individual who has exercised courage especially reliable, for it is often (not always) the case that what required great courage in anticipation turned out to (appear to) require less from the perspective of completion.

Still, courage exists. There is more than sufficient evidence to take this on faith. It is beyond (good and proper and necessary) reasonable doubt.

Courage exists, as do many other things for which there is neither objective instrument nor scale, but the utterly relational human soul, constructed (and restored) and calibrated (and recalibrated) by God. The soul, which registers evidence, not proof. Evidence of the immeasurable and unscalable. Such as love (which looks like courage in the world).

What is the proof that you are waiting for – in relation to anything? Or, better, what is the evidence? What will it take for you to act?

Take courage.