Courage or Skill?

Journal 2005 10 08

The leaky canoe from yesterday is repaired. All canoes are reloaded and the men are under way again at nine am. Sixteen rapids are run and the last one causes one of the canoes side to split open and sink. This is at sixteen miles. Some of the men cannot swim and hang on to the sunken canoe for life until rescued by those in the small canoe. The sunken canoe is towed to shore and all its cargo is spread out to dry.

The weather is cloudy and cool making drying the goods a longer process than normal. No mention is made of the type of food eaten today. And no mention is made of the condition of the men’s intestines. I don’t imagine that any game was added to the diet. Seems like they would still be eating what they procured in trade from the Nez Perce.

I am continually dumbfounded that there are men on this expedition that cannot swim! How can you spend most of a year in and on the water and not be able to swim? In the extensive interviews and screening that the Captains required for recruitment into the Corps of Discovery you would think swimming would be required.

Today’s record reminds me that success does not require perfection.

Success rests on heart. Heart to succeed at all costs. Lewis recorded the heart of the men of the Corp of Discovery after observing their uncomplaining work in suffering the long portage around the Great Falls of the Missouri as “all appear perfectly to have made up their minds to succeed in the expedition or purish in the attempt.” Heart. You can teach it, but at some point it must be tried and tested. I believe heart is demonstrated and caught as much as it is taught. Somehow, the Captains had an ability to recognize heart in the men that were selected for this most dangerous of missions. History proves their judgments to be filled with wisdom.

I’ve written about courage outside this body of writing and will attempt that topic under the banner of this chronicle, but not at length today. The short version is that the word courage is derived from “cor,” Latin for heart. We get our word coronary from this word. So courage is not about strength or skill or knowledge. It is about something found only in the deepest center of our being, the heart. Stephen Ambrose used a quote from Thomas Jefferson describing the unique qualifications of Meriwether Lewis to lead this expedition to title his book about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. President Jefferson wrote that Lewis was among many things a man “of courage undaunted.” Ambrose and his family spent most of their summers retracing the path of these brave voyagers. The Ambrose family was captivated by the heart of these great Americans and several have written books. I highly recommend all of their writing and believed they have captured the heart provided by the example of the Corps of Discovery. Dad Stephen wrote my favorite account of this journey and titled it “Undaunted Courage.” It is the book that started me on this trek.

Moses had an aide appointed by God who would become a “general” and lead Israel into the Promised Land upon his death. He was called Joshua, the deliverer, savior, because he would live to lead a nation into new freedom representative of the freedom Jesus, the Deliverer, the Savior, leads each of us into as we call on His Name for salvation and become citizens in the Kingdom of God.

God is giving Joshua instructions for his new position. His strength, intellect, knowledge and skills were already known. God’s list of qualifications was concise, “For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro in all the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him.” His direction for leading the nation out of bondage and into the land of Promise is always, “Be strong and of good courage.” Heart.

Jehovah God taught Moses with these words, Moses taught Joshua and Joshua commanded the nation of Israel with this same command. And I say to myself and all who read this, “Skill, yes. Knowledge, yes. Health, yes. Wisdom, of course! But above all else be strong and of good courage for the Lord your God is with You!”