Discover more from The Cottage
The word “encouragement” popularly means to cheer someone up. If a friend is glum or having a tough time, we might send a note of encouragement or tell them to be encouraged.
But the word “encouragement” means more than bucking up or lifting one’s spirits. It literally means to strengthen the heart or to grow in courage.
In the United States, we’re increasingly realizing the dangers of this moment — the threat of fascism. Last night, The New York Times published an on-the-record interview with Gen. John Kelly, who was once Trump’s presidential chief of staff. The reporter summarized the conversation as following:
[Kelly] said that, in his opinion, Mr. Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.
You can read the article for yourself — “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator” — I’ve provided the link as a gift article for you.
Being encouraged means being CLEAR EYED about the reality of our situation.
I’m not trying to scare you. I’m hoping that you will grasp the urgency of the moment. And I hope that awareness will encourage you — give you courage to do something in the next few days to push back the threat.
Make sure you vote. Vote early if you can. Talk to anyone and everyone you can about why this election is important. Write postcards (you can still do this!). Phone bank. Call someone you know in a swing state (North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada — and any other states with important close elections like the Senate elections in Texas, Ohio, and Florida). Stay informed. Take breaks from social media when needed. Meditate and pray. Go for a walk outside. Listen to music you love. If you can, talk to your pastor or spiritual guide about what you are feeling — and what you hope for your church community in the midst of all of this.
BE ENCOURAGED. Don’t cheer up. Get your superpowers on. Galvanize your heart.
Paid subscribers can comment at any time. Commenting is open to free subscribers and visitors only for a short period following publication. This is for the safety and civility and community.
Two things for you that I hope will strengthen your courage.
FIRST: Here’s the video of our recent Convocation Unscripted LIVE from Tempe, Arizona, Faith and Democracy event.
Kristin Du Mez, Jemar Tisby, Robby Jones and I have had a great time doing this in recent weeks. We’ve grown in courage by being together. And we’ve learned that courage grows in community.
Everyone can watch below.
You can also share this video via the Convocation newsletter with ANYONE via this LINK.
Share The Cottage with your friends — have them sign up to receive the newsletter directly to their inbox!
SECOND: Professor Julie Ingersoll is coming to the Cottage online THIS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 at 1:30PM Eastern/10:30AM Pacific for an impromptu and informative discussion about Project 2025. The conversation will be recorded.
Julie is a Cottage favorite guest. She teaches at the University of Northern Florida, holds a Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara, and is a world-class scholar of far-right theocratic movements.
Cottage Conversations are for paid subscribers in order to allow for audience Q&A and a civil online discussion.
If you’ve been thinking about a paid subscription, you can update your subscription by clicking below (it won’t immediately charge your card — it will give you options and you choose):
All paid subscribers will receive a link to the live conversation on Thursday morning, about three hours before we begin. If you cannot attend live, don’t worry. We record these conversations and email them directly to all paid subscribers several hours after the live event.
INSPIRATION
Courage is a word that tempts us to think outwardly, to run bravely against opposing fire, to do something under besieging circumstance, and perhaps, above all, to be seen to do it in public, to show courage; to be celebrated in story, rewarded with medals, given the accolade, but a look at its linguistic origins leads us in a more interior direction and toward its original template, the old Norman French, Coeur, or heart.
Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future.
To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to seat our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to and into the necessities of relationships that often already exist, with things we find we already care deeply about: with a person, a future, a possibility in society, or with an unknown that begs us on and always has begged us on. Whether we stay or whether we go - to be courageous is to stay close to the way we are made…
— David Whyte, poet and philosopher
My courageous life
has gone ahead
and is looking back,
calling me on.
My courageous life
has seen everything
I have been
and everything
I have not
and has
forgiven me,
day after day.
My courageous life
still wants
my company:
wants me to
understand
my life as witness
and thus
bequeath me
the way ahead.
My courageous life
has the patience
to keep teaching me,
how to invent
my own
disappearance,
and how
once gone,
to reappear again.
My courageous life
wants to stop
being ahead of me
so that it can lie
down and rest
deep inside the body
it has been
calling on.
My courageous life
wants to be
my foundation,
showing me
day after day
even against my will
how to undo myself,
how to surpass myself,
how to laugh as I go
in the face
of danger,
how to invite
the right kind
of perilous
love,
how to find
a way
to die
of generosity.
— David Whyte, “Second Life,” from Still Possible (this is a great book of poetry - I read it during sabbatical - recommend!)
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
— 2 Timothy 1:7
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
— 1 John 4:18
Thank you, Diana. And thank you also for spending 5-10 minutes talking with my son after your panel discussion with Gary Dorrian and others last Saturday at Theology Beer Camp. It meant a great deal to him (and to me).
The last Convocation Unscripted was so powerful, start to finish, each speaker spoke such brave truth, that I could not miss one word! Thank you.. faith and hope are bolstered by this , and courage to live it now. I watch from Canada, but share in the world-wide struggle of our times.