Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the leaders notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. Dr. Rutland is a world renowned leadership expert. He is a New York Times best selling author and he has served as the president of two universities. The Leaders Notebook is brought to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global Servants, please Visit our website globalservants.org Here is your host, Dr. Mark Rutland.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: If character forms the building blocks of any great culture, the cornerstone of all character has to be courage.
I'm Mark Rutland. Welcome to the Leader's Notebook. I'm continuing this series based on my book, Character Matters. I hope you're enjoying the series and that if you've missed any episodes that you'll go back in the archives and listen to every one and that you'll stay tuned for the others in the weeks to come.
I want you to have a book that I wrote based on character. It's called Character Matters. It's been a huge seller.
Essential traits you need to succeed.
I want you to have this book and if you'll stay tuned at the end of this podcast, you'll learn how to make a contribution to the missions program, particularly our girls homes in Southeast Asia and West Africa. Those girls homes are called House of Grace and we are, with your partnership, saving little Girls for Big Destinies.
How you can make a contribution of any size. I hope of course you'll make it as generous as possible, but make a contribution today online of any size and I'll send you a copy of Character Matters. I want you to have this book and I'm urging you to help us save Little Girls for Big Destinies. Now today we're talking about the fundamental building block of character and that is courage.
On March 31, 2003, a Bradley armored vehicle inched its way onto a bridge in Iraq.
Three American soldiers, young men with everything to live for, crouched low as they followed their eye and saw an old woman stranded on the bridge. Bullets from an Iraqi gun on the far side of the river and pinged off of the sides of the vehicle and the steel girders. And they knew the enemy knew that those soldiers, if they risked their lives for that woman by pinning her down with enemy fire, if they risked their lives, they knew they could get one of those Americans. Or at least they hoped they could.
The soldiers kept coming anyway, risking their lives with every step, braving the enemy guns all for the life of an elderly Iraqi woman huddled in the gun smoke and the fear of her life. The officer in charge tossed a smoke grenade and three Americans ran forward to pull the woman to safety. Captain Chris Carter, at the ripe old age of 31, was the company commander.
He ordered his men to retreat, carrying the woman while he gave covering fire with his M16.
They were brave, yes, but they were not merely brave. They were courageous, risking their lives for a defenseless woman in danger of the bullets of her own nation's army.
Claire Boothe Luce, one of the writers that I've enjoyed through the years, the late Clare Boothe Luce, said, courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.
The misguided, the deceived and the fanatical may at times act bravely, hurling themselves into the jaws of death.
True courage, however noble courage, the authentic, spontaneous act of self sacrificial concern for the defenseless, is not fanaticism but character.
The way a society comprehends courage will in a great part determine whether it will be a noble civilization or sink into brutality, brutality and barbarism.
Courage is not the feeling of fearlessness.
It is rather the willingness of mind necessary to act out of conviction rather than surrendering to that feeling.
One may actually feel quite fearless and act in a cowardly manner. Also, one may feel quite fearful and behave with great courage.
Several years ago, the wire services carried an account of a printing press operator in the Midwest whose employer signed a contract to print a pornographic magazine.
This man refused to operate his press on that one contract. He pleaded with his boss, allow me to work on any other project. Give me the worst hours in the shop. I won't operate my press when that magazine comes through, but I'll do anything else.
He was summarily fired.
He appealed to his labor union, which declined to support his quote, unquote censorship.
He lost his job with only three years to go on his pension and retirement.
I was discussing this very disturbing story with another pastor, and that pastor said, what a jerk he was, gagging at gnats and swallowing camels.
He went on. He said, how big of a deal is it he doesn't have to read the pornography or look at the pictures? That fool hasn't any responsibility in the matter. All he has to do is operate a printing press.
That pastor's sad attitude is indicative of a deep wound in our society.
When we can no longer even identify which situations demand truly courageous responses, then we no longer know when to take a stand.
Finally, we will lose our understanding of what courage even is.
If a society misidentifies courage, it is on the verge of barbarism.
Courage is that willingness to deny my own flesh and do what is right and noble, regardless of the cost I once counseled a young engaged couple who were living together.
Partly because it was financially expedient for them to do so.
I counseled them that one or the other of them should move out until the wedding.
I urged that they establish a clean relationship for a full year and then get married only on the solid foundation of a virtuous relationship.
They explained to me how extremely difficult it would be for them financially. I assured them I knew it would take great courage to act so virtuously.
I was amazed and impressed when they accepted my advice.
The expense was not only financial.
Remember, their bodies had cultivated an appetite for each other.
They were enjoying all the benefits of marriage sexually and none of the responsibilities of. Of the commitment.
That is a very difficult thing to reverse. But they did it.
They acted with tremendous courage, and God blessed them for it. One of the most satisfying moments of my ministry was receiving a letter from them more than a year later as they honeymooned in Italy. Let me read it to you.
Dear Dr. Rutland. This is the greatest moment of our lives because we know that we acted as God wanted us to.
We have now come on this honeymoon together from the foundation stone of a virtuous relationship.
If we had gone on living together and gotten married, we would only have been asking the church to solemnize what we were already doing.
Now we know that our marriage is founded in Christ, and we are so happy.
Courage is the first and greatest element of character.
Merely knowing what is chaste or honest or true is not enough.
It takes courage to act on virtue.
Courage is also the catalytic agent that summons every other virtue into action in the face of temptation or crisis. It takes courage to act on my virtues.
A contractor agreed to build a house for a certain amount.
The contract that called for top grade materials became unprofitable when a sudden, unexpected rise in the cost of materials caught him and many other contractors by surprise. If he fulfilled the contract as signed, he knew he would lose money.
He also knew that he could use lower grades of material and get away with it. It probably would not even make much difference in the quality of the house.
Now the obvious issue was honesty. He knew the honest thing to do, but his honesty would cost him his profit margin.
It required tremendous courage for him to act honestly. Honesty is the virtue resident. Yes, but it takes courage to put that virtue into action.
Many miss the greater truth of courage by thinking of it solely in. In terms of bravery.
Though bravery may be admirable, courage is far more than valor in the face of danger. Courage and heroism are not exactly synonymous.
Acts of heroism may or may not be indicative of true courage.
Heroism in the face of danger may be a momentary burst of instinct, not reflective of true character.
Some people are simply constitutionally impetuous. They just run into the danger. They are bolder than others by nature.
Sometimes public heroes in war or athletics later live unproductive and even destructive lives.
Such people are not really courageous.
They were simply momentarily brave.
Imagine two children playing on a swing set.
One child, by nature, loves the thrill of danger. Swing me higher, she cries. Push me higher, Daddy.
It may not indicate any great courage on her part. It may rather be that she has a broad thrill spectrum.
Her brother, on the other hand, says, not so high, Daddy. Not so high.
The father thinks his boy is cowardly, but in reality he may simply be more prudent.
To confuse prudence and cowardice is dangerous folly.
Don't be a coward, comes the stinging rebuke from the father.
The boy's heart is damaged needlessly, for he is not cowardly at all.
He may just be smarter than his sister.
Furthermore, courage without character can degenerate into mere bravado.
The distinction between a hero and an obnoxious show off is character. In other words, if his motives are selfish and impure, a hero's actions may result from a lust for preeminence that overrides his good judgment.
Indeed, acts of heroism may sometimes be born of stupidity or ignorance or even misunderstanding.
Circumstantial reality may also be mistaken as courage.
A condemned prisoner on death row was allowed to select his menu for his last meal.
Mushrooms, he answered. I want fresh mushrooms. Right. Straight from the forest floor. I've wanted them all my life and I've never tasted them. I've always been afraid I'd get poisoned ones, and now it doesn't matter.
Beyond circumstances past mere bravery, there's another kind of courage. The courage of true character lifts and ennobles a life.
A warrior may fight valiantly, brave all manner of danger, overcome insurmountable odds, defeat a superior enemy only to plunder the city and outrage its citizens.
Is he courageous?
In every classical and biblical sense of virtue, the answer is an unqualified no.
The fearless warrior who rapes and burns is not courageous. He is a brute.
Courage, true courage, is about valiant goodness in the inner office and inner soul of every congressman.
Our nation and civilization hang in the balance.
Until we can cultivate statesmen who are willing to be turned out of office for even taking a stand on moral issues, A national character such as ours will continue to erode the congressman who violates his conscience for gain, blasphemes his office, and corrupts his own humanity.
Ultimately, his character will become so degraded that he will be unable to take a stand.
He will lose the ground that he needs to stand on to be courageous. His vote, his influence, and his soul will be cheapened at every resale.
Enthroned as an incumbent, he may be elected time after time after time until he becomes an empty husk of a politician.
But no office gained or kept is worth the loss of his character.
Hardly any endeavor known to man requires more courage than preaching.
The courageous man of God preaches what is right, regardless of whom it pleases or offends. The courageous woman of God not only preaches what is right, but she must preach what is right in a right way, refusing to compromise her message or her methods.
Likewise, the policeman who refuses an envelope of money is not only honest, he's courageous.
The schoolboy who declines to hear the dirty joke is not just chaste, he's courageous.
Courage is the fundamental basis on which a society or a culture builds its character.
I hope you've enjoyed this teaching today on Courage as part of our series on Character Matters.
Now, I hope you'll stay tuned and someone is going to tell you how you can receive a copy of my book Character Matters simply for making a contribution to Global Servants, to our missions work, and particularly to our girls homes in Southeast Asia. You're helping us with this contribution. Save little girls for big destinies and you'll be helping yourself to receive a copy of Character Matters. Until we meet again. I'm Mark Rutland and this has been the Leader's Notebook.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Wow. Another great episode of the Leader's Notebook. Hello, I'm Ronnie Brannan, the Chief of Staff at Global servants, and as Dr. Rutland said, we want to send you your copy of his book Character Matters. You can receive your copy of by contributing any amount to Global Servants through our Secure Give app on our website. Go to globalservants.org, click the Donate button and then click Give Online and then leave your contribution under the Podcast Gift tab. Next, please click Add a Message and include your name, email address, and the mailing address where you would like your book delivered. As soon as your donation is processed, we'll send you an email confirming the delivery address and and we'll get your book in the mail to you by the next business day. Again, thank you for subscribing to the leaders notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland and helping make a difference for those around the world in helping save little girls for big destinies.
You've been listening to the Leader's Notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. Be sure to subscribe, rate and review today's podcast. You can follow Dr. Rutland on Twitter at Dr. Mark Rutland or visit his website, Dr.markrutland.com join us next week for another episode of the Leader's Notebook.
