by Lynn Mandaville

Two weeks ago, the pastor of our new church began a series on courage.

To capture the imaginations of the congregation he began with a story about the actor Will Smith, a story Smith told on several late-night talk shows about his experience sky-diving at age 50.

As the story goes, Smith was, essentially, peer-pressured into going up with friends who were going to sky-dive.  He didn’t want to do it.  The prospect scared the living bejezus out of him.  But he was caught up in the moment and agreed to go.

Smith was certain that he would never have to actually jump out of the plane.  But as the passage of time would have it,  his turn came, and the countdown went to zero, and he was pushed out of the plane.

He says he screamed all the way down, he was that scared.

The bottom line, however, from Smith, when it was all over, was that on the other side of fear was the best experience of his life.

That’s what it’s like when you deliberately face your fear and conquer it.

Earlier in the service that Sunday, during the time when the congregation traditionally greets one another, the pastor had asked us to share with our seat neighbors the most courageous thing we had ever done.  I heard everyone around us echo our same claim that they had never done anything courageous.  Even my son Randy told someone that he hadn’t ever committed a courageous deed.

But while we were singing, I leaned into Randy and said to him, “Didn’t you once stop on a California freeway in the middle of the night when you saw a car flip over the median into oncoming traffic, crash onto its roof and start to burn?”

He actually had to think a minute before the memory came back to him.  I said, “Didn’t you pull the driver out of the burning car and call 911, and wait with him, while your car sat idling on the other side of the median?”

He said yeah.  That happened.

I said, “Don’t you think that counts as a courageous act?”

And Randy said, “I guess.”

“And what about when your brother rescued those two little kids from the wave pool at AJ’s Water Park that time?  Do you think that was courageous?”  And Randy said, “Well, that was his job as a lifeguard.”

“But do you think it took courage to do his job?”

And Randy said, “I guess.  But we both just did what we needed to do at the time.”

That’s what it’s like when people don’t even realize that they are facing what they should be afraid of, in a moment when they just do what the situation calls for.

It’s my belief that most people have done something in their lifetimes that took courage.  Most of us haven’t faced the fear of leaping out of a plane and plunging to earth, having faith that the parachute will open.  I think that most people commit acts of courage without recognizing the deeds needs courage – either at the time or after the fact – because it is just something that has to be done.

I am reminded of a day a couple of years ago when a crazy person decided to shoot at Republican congressmen who were practicing for the annual congressional softball game in Washington, DC.  Congressman Steve Scalise was critically wounded, and he lay bleeding in the infield.  Senator Jeff Flake, without a second’s hesitation, immediately ran to his aid, beginning first aid while the shooter was still active.  Later, Flake was asked about his courage.  Flake seemed confused about the question.  His response was that it was not a big deal.  He had just done what had to be done.

Courage sure is a funny thing.

You wouldn’t need a lot of time to come up with a short list of your own of courageous people.

Maybe you know a military veteran who has been cited for valor in battle.  Maybe you think of the volunteer firemen in your community who willingly jump into action from their day jobs or from their cozy beds at night to fight a fire or rescue an accident victim trapped in a car on 131.

They are all around us.  Maybe they even are us.  People just doing what needs to be done.

We don’t give it very much thought.

But this week I’m giving courage a lot of thought, and it’s because there is courage in Washington, DC, this week.  And I hope there will be a lot more.

Democrats have shown a fair amount of courage in holding their impeachment inquiries. They have sought to make plainly visible the indisputable evidence of an undisputed action by President Trump to shake down the new Ukrainian president in exchange for an investigation into the son of a prospective political opponent.  They have done so in the face of Republican and presidential ranting and raving and gnashing of teeth, of name-calling and misdirection and lying outside of the Senate chambers.  It can’t be easy to stand up for your beliefs in the face of all that drama.

But they persevered, and impeached President Trump.  And they have sent their Articles of Impeachment over to the Senate for the trial.

My guess is that most of the House Democrats don’t consider what they’ve done as an act of courage.  They were just doing what had to be done.

Following that, the Impeachment Managers went to the Senate this week to lay out their case in the impeachment trial of the president on the grounds of abuse of power and obstruction of justice.  I’m sure they don’t consider those actions to be courageous either.  They’re just doing what has to be done.

Now it is up to the Republican senators to do what has to be done.

But for them it will require a deliberate act of courage to convict this president of his crimes.

Republican senators must stand up to a dangerous bully to find Trump guilty of the undisputed act of shaking down a foreign leader for his own benefit and then attempting to obstruct the proof of that act.

Republicans have seen the results of Trump’s wrath when he has been defied.  Trump belittles, berates, and tosses out like garbage those who would oppose him.  Trump threatens and then dismisses (through his subordinates or email) those who stand in his way.  Trump rails in thinly veiled threats like a mob boss, “Take her out!”  “Get rid of her!” as he did against Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.  Or “He’ll pay for [what he’s done],” in reference to Adam Schiff in a wild tweet just this weekend.

It takes courage to fly in the face of outrageous behavior, because it’s scary.  Maybe as scary as jumping out of a perfectly good airplane to free fall back to earth.

But a bully can be stood up to.

Republicans can search their consciences and do what has to be done, even if it means facing the severity of the consequences.

Republicans can look at the facts.  They can even insist that witnesses be heard and documents reviewed before they make the final vote of thumbs down for this unfit excuse for a president.

They can stare in the face of fear and come out clean the other side.

Because a bully can be stood up to.

A bully must be stood up to.

On the other side of the fear of that bully can be the greatest experiences of these Republican senators’ lives.

Otherwise, Trump has already taken their lunch money.