Sometimes Courage Is Just Doing the Next Thing

I am grateful for Rob Bell.

In my current unchurched state (another story entirely), listening to his weekly podcast makes me feel as if I’ve gone to church and heard a great sermon, one that touches someplace deep, except it’s a church where I do not feel guilty about my lack of involvement. At my old church, there were so many jobs that needed to be done, and I did so few of them. I was a failure as a church member. For example, sometimes I would try to hide if I saw the children’s nursery volunteer coordinator moving my way after service. What kind of good church member does that?

Also, after a Rob Bell podcast, I don’t have to linger in the back of the church sanctuary, exchanging benign pleasantries with people who continue to support President Trump in the name of Jesus. I love these people; I do. I just don’t want to chitchat with them and pretend that everything is OK in our land when it is not. The best thing about Rob Bell’s weekly sermon (I mean podcast) is that I am almost always reminded that I am loved, that there is nothing I have to prove, that all of us are already at the party (including Trump supporters, so please forgive the outburst above), and that we are all accepted right now, just as we are.

I found two recent podcast episodes to be especially moving. Well. Now they are less recent, since it has taken me a month to post this. Nonetheless, they are worth a listen. On New Year’s Day, Bell did a live show with author Elizabeth Gilbert, and then spent his next two podcasts rebroadcasting it. If you aren’t familiar with Bell’s work, these would be a great place to start. You can find the first on right here: Rob Bell with Elizabeth Gilbert, Part One

I also love Elizabeth Gilbert. I loved the book that she is most famous for, Eat Pray Love. Also, her book on creativity, Big Magic, sort of changed my life. I listened to it on audio book about three years ago. I remember because I was driving my daughter who was a freshman at the time to a basketball tournament over Christmas break. It was a rainy day and the road was terrible and curvy, but I didn’t mind much because as I listened the road faded away and something in me came back to life. If you are someone who is creative but who is not creating, for whatever reason (which is many of us, I fear) that book is a place to begin.

After steeping myself in Big Magic, I was brave enough to start this blog. It took a few months, but the hardest part of blogging, both at the beginning and now? It’s not the writing. It’s the sharing. I mostly hate it. It’s what scares me most. I am afraid that I will write something wrong or bad. I am afraid I will offend someone or inadvertently alienate someone I love. For example, I have struggled for a few days with my reference to my lack of church attendance above, on the slight chance that my pastor might happen upon this someday, and feel hurt, which is not my intention at all. I love my pastor and his wife. They are the best of people, unfailingly kind and generous. It’s not their fault that I haven’t been to church in more than a year. Also, what about  internet trolls and haters?  I’d rather not deal with them.

In retrospect, I probably didn’t need to worry about that, since so far my audience here has been a handful of friends who are my community, my people, my lifeblood. Hate could still happen, I know. I still might hurt someone I love. But so far I’ve written 60 posts and enjoyed three years of support from a  faithful group of readers who have been loving witnesses to my process.

What does all this have to do with Rob Bell?

He said something in those podcasts that I want to take to heart this year.

Gilbert asked Bell to talk about “courage.” What does that word mean to him?

Bell said, “For me, the whole path has been that there is the next thing to make or say, and then you just make it or say it or do it or take that step, because if you don’t, something within you will die. Some part of your soul will shrink… Inevitably it will require some level of courage or bravery. But that’s not the goal; it’s just something that happens along the way…When I meet people who are talking about the hero’s journey, or courage or bravery… (what I want to know is) what’s the least sexy next step you could take that probably no one will ever watch… What’s that one? If you do that? Now we’re on to something.”

So what should I try to do this year with this blog?

Maybe it’s enough to just take the next step. So often I start the New Year thinking that I want to change not just my life but the world.  But maybe changing the world means just doing the next ordinary, mundane thing.  It’s as simple as taking out the trash, making a salad for lunch, sitting in the car while my daughter and her friend are at Nordic ski practice, writing some words here, and hitting, “Post.”  And not having it be perfect. But just letting it be the next one.