Embrace Courageous Moments

This is the second installment of a multi-part blog series by CHA Head of School Joseph Torgerson, entitled "Courageous Parenting: Raising a Generation That Loves Courageously."

Teaching our children to love courageously and sacrificially like Jesus will not happen by accident. 

And it will also not happen if we just talk about it. I’ve been in education a long time, and I can say with confidence that James is right: we must not merely “listen” but “do” (James 1:22). It’s in the doing that we see actual transformation. 

The famous theologian and preacher John Wesley once said, “I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.” We learn most deeply from lived practice, and that kind of lived practice of faith is nowhere more apparent than in your home. 

So consider: in your family, do your kids have opportunities to see what courageous love looks like? Are there opportunities to sacrifice? To do something risky for a higher purpose?

I went to high school in Taiwan, and when I was 16 years old, tragedy struck. A 7.3 earthquake struck the island in the early hours of the morning about 25 miles from my home. Almost 2,500 people died in the event, many buried alive. My hometown was on the faultline. Buildings collapsed. Houses slid down mountains. It was horrible. I felt helpless and paralyzed by fear. The memory of standing in the street for hours with all our neighbors, all in our pajamas, is burned in my mind. Hearing the rumble of aftershocks coming nearer and nearer: car alarms and the rattle of corrugated roofs getting louder and louder. Hoping our houses wouldn’t collapse. Hoping the electric wires above wouldn’t fall on us. 

And I also remember what my dad did the day after the earthquake. He and a few other dads from our school put their heads together. No group text. Just an old school 1990s phone tree. Early the next morning we met at the school parking lot with vans and high school sons and daughters and as much water and tents and sleeping bags as we could round up. The plan was to split into groups and drive right to the town at the epicenter to hand out water, give people sleeping bags and tents, pray with people, and just see how we could help. 

What about the aftershocks? What about our own needs at home? 

It didn’t matter. People were in desperate need, and we had to do something. 

There’s more to the story, but the point is this: I saw my dad roll his sleeves up, take a courageous risk in the name of love, and do something. 

The lesson was burned in my mind as a sixteen-year-old: when our family sees something wrong in the world, we do something about it in the name of Jesus. That is who we are. 

What about your family? Is that who you are?

We are trying to get this lesson across in our “CHA Family” every November when we have GO! Week. The point is for our students to see a need and learn that the right response is action. Check out the incredible lessons learned here.

But are your kids also seeing this lesson from you, at home? 

Have your children ever seen their mom or their dad in action, taking a risk to love others with courage? 

Have they had to wait in the car for you as you comfort a distraught friend or family member? Have you served as a family, even when it’s inconvenient? Have you gone to visit someone sick or suffering together? Have you prayed together, earnestly, for others who are struggling? Have you saved up your money as a family, sacrificing a want for the need of another? Have you opened up your home and lives to share God’s blessings with someone who needs it?

My encouragement to you is this: embrace courageous moments as a family.

Sometimes these happen to you – we certainly didn’t plan on a massive earthquake. Maybe your family is experiencing suffering right now, and the lesson is right before you. Sometimes we have no choice. But if that’s not the case, we can be intentional as parents about planning these as well. 

So, how will your family participate in courageous love together?

—JT

Read the next post in the series

Joe Torgerson (M.Ed., University of Missouri, B.A., Bethel University) serves as Head of School at CHA. Drawing on nine years of high school humanities teaching in addition to nearly a decade of U.S. and international administrative leadership, Joe guides the school with a global perspective rooted in a lifelong commitment to Christian ministry. He is a husband, father of three, and an avid enthusiast of athletics, board games, music, and dim sum.