It takes a lot of courage to live an abundant life in our world today. With all the messages that we are bombarded with of scarcity, strife, and fear it is easy to become disillusioned with life. If one focuses on everything that they feel is wrong with the world and wrong with themselves, it can be truly disheartening.
The antidote to dissolution and self-doubt is courage. We have to summon courage in order to blast through the negativity that is present in our world and in or own psyche. On the spiritual path, it is easy to become fearful and discouraged. When we find ourselves making the same mistakes over and over again, when we trip and fall over the same negative emotions and blocks, we can lose our courage and become stuck.
Courage is a great blockbuster. It helps us to push through our fear and overcome our own oppressive mental and emotional thoughts that keep us stuck. The Hero’s Journey is a great metaphor for understanding our own pilgrimage and the process that we go through to move beyond fear. Simply put, the Hero’s Journey is about anyone who is faced with a challenge, accepts the call to overcome it, moves beyond fear and inertia, and comes back triumphant and wiser.
When you look at all of the great stories, they all follow in some manner or another, the Hero’s Journey. These stories and fairytales remind us that life is full of challenges and that if we persist and don’t lose heart, we will overcome and have stories of victory to share with the world.
To be the hero of our own story, we must mine the depths of our own soul, searching for inner resources and learning to connect with a greater power. The Bible is full of stories of men and women on the Hero’s Journey. The Apostle Paul even describes the armor that prepares the Hero to journey each day with protection and guidance.
Spiritually we have many tools available to help us along the path. Paul describes these in Ephesians 6. He calls them God’s armor. It is the wardrobe that gives the Hero courage to win. There is truth, God’s light and righteousness, peace, faith, the assurance of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.
Equipped with this type of armor, we can have courage to face the many dilemmas and trials that we encounter in this life. You are the hero in your own story. Dress for success. Be armed with the Spirit’s power. You can slay whatever oppresses you on your path when you are dressed in the armor of the Hero.
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