Over six years have passed since the inception of my website, Coeurageous. Much has changed since I penned my first blog post. But yet, much has stayed the same. Anxiety levels have soared since the pandemic and haven’t settled down. Fear is at an all-time high. The need for encouragement and hope has moved us to a new level of desperation. We’re like weary travelers on a desert road, dying of thirst but unable to find water to quench it. We must seek a way to live and act fearlessly even in a world full of pain.
So, this week I decided to share with you, my very first post. I imagine most of my readers don’t know the “why” behind my writing. Even though, my situation has changed, my motivation has not. Acting as an encourager remains my goal whether I’m working full time in an inner-city clinic or semi-retired in the mountains of East Tennessee. People continue to need courage and to know they’re not alone. As long as I’m living and breathing, this is my job. Physician-Author-Encourager.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV
Coeurageous
February 4, 2018
Today I begin a new goal. I’m setting forth on a fresh journey. It started really with a thought that came to me several weeks ago. It occurred to me that everything I do that is of any importance, revolves around the role of being an encourager. Any conversation of significance has encouragement at its core, whether it be a personal conversation with a friend or family member or an encounter with one of my patients in the clinic. I have been placed in a position of influence. My words, for good or for bad, have a powerful effect, whether I want to admit it or not. Sometimes I would prefer to not have so much responsibility.
But here I am working at an inner-city clinic in Indianapolis with so many people who need encouragement desperately. When I first began a year ago, I was shocked by the number of my patients who had been wounded by gunfire or had a family member killed by gun violence. It does not shock me anymore, but it grieves me that this is the norm. The level of trauma experienced by my patients is overwhelming. They are broken in so many ways but yet are survivors. How can I bring a word of hope to them when I have never experienced anything close to what they live every day?
I have never been homeless or worried about my next meal. I have never been trafficked or abused. But I do believe that no matter what your culture, race or socioeconomic class, everyone experiences pain in one way or another. Pain can speak to pain even when it is not the same. But you must have a heart to listen. So much of what I hear, I can’t “fix” or cure. I can only listen and encourage each person to move through the pain toward healing with courage.
It was in this context that I imagined a website called “Coeurageous”. Coeur is the French word for Heart. To be coeurageous is to be moved by the heart to live and act fearlessly, even in a world full of pain. I meet coeurageous people every day and their lives encourage me. I want to pass these words of encouragement on to others through stories that I share on this website and stories that my readers share with me.
So, I hope that you join me on this adventure. Watch for blog posts to come and please feel welcome to respond. We cannot live life fully when we are cowering in fear and anxiety. The world has a way of knocking us down and paralyzing us with worry. So let us encourage each other to overcome the hopelessness around us. Be strong. Be coeurageous in all you do.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9 NIV
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