Someone recently said in my hearing that courage is confidence in the providence of God to engage in a dangerous mission. People with courage we call heroes.

This past week I had the privilege of attending the funeral of a hero. He was a member of our church. He was twenty-two years old. He was killed by an IED in Afghanistan. He finished his assigned patrol for the morning and then volunteered to lead the patrol of a friend who as suffering from exhaustion.

I had to leave the service at 12:00 straight up so I sat on the last pew. My guess is there were a 1000 people in attendance.

This hero was an average guy. His football coach spoke of his weaknesses and his strengths. Loyalty and determination seems to have been his primary character qualities. He was the Christian young man down the street struggling to mature into a man. The Marine Corps was his development plan. It was a good plan!

But, you say, his plan got him killed. No, his plan no more got him killed than did my mother’s plan to have children give rise to her losing six children. He was a hero. He had courage to trust the providence of God to engage a dangerous mission. My mother had courage to trust the providence of God to engage in a dangerous mission and as a result I am here to write this piece.

From whence does this courage whelm up? It seems to me to have its roots in two faith-factors.

One is that God has numbered our days (Ps 139:16; 39:4). The day we arrived in this world and the day we are to depart this world our set by God. It is said that Stonewall Jackson was asked about the level of his fear going into battle. His response was that God had numbered his days and therefore there was no more danger in battle then anywhere else.

The second faith-factor is this. Those who wait upon the Lord will gain new strength and they will mount up with wings like eagles (Is 40:31). In other words, that will rise above the danger and endure.

Did our young lance corporal rise above the danger and endure? Yes! He was courageous because he trusted in the providence of God and while in this life it appears his plan and his God failed him, it is only because we choose to construe his demise through the lens of tragedy rather than through the lens of eternity.

The pastor brilliantly and correctly commented that there are ultimately no tragedies for the Christian.

We need heroes. We need them in the ghetto. We need them on the athletic field. We need them in the pulpit. We need them in the university. We need them in the business world. And, surely, we need them in the political arena.

Howard Eyrich is a minister in the PCA and currently serves as Pastor of Counseling Ministries at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. He is the author of the best selling pre-marital counseling guide Three To Get Ready, as well as Totally Sufficient and Curing the Heart both in 2nd editions. He and his wife, Pamela, have two children and eight grandchildren.