Bravery is not a contest

Last week Caitlyn Jenner’s picture appeared on the front cover of Vanity Fair. Immediately people online began to juxtapose her photo next to photos of veterans and first responders, saying that “real bravery” looked like the latter, and that Caitlyn was not brave.

I reject that false dichotomy. Bravery is not something that only those who have been in certain experiences can claim. Rather, bravery is the manner in which we respond to situations that occur in our lives. Some make the front pages. Most do not. Here is where I have seen bravery in my life and my work as a pastor:

Bravery is my father putting his family on a plane in Saigon in 1965 while he stayed behind. And bravery is my mother, 26 years old with two small children, waiting in the aftermath of an explosion in Vietnam for a call that took days to come telling her that her husband was alive.