“‘But where shall I find courage?’ asked Frodo. ‘That is what I chiefly need.’
‘Courage is found in unlikely places,’ said Gildor. ‘Be of good hope!'”
~ The Fellowship of the Ring // JRR Tolkien

Last year, back in early Spring, a Kindred Spirit friend posted a simple photo to her Instagram story. It was a blue-grey wall with peeling paint in what looked like a back alley somewhere. Someone had spray-painted 2 words on the concrete:

endless courage.

That was it.

Nothing lewd or crazy. Just 2 life-giving, 7-letter words left by an anonymous lovely human (well, they were anonymous until today, but that’s getting ahead of the story…)

Christ used my friend’s Insta story to meet me exactly where I needed to be met back in April 2023. I struggle deeply with being courageous, with refusing to let the Darkness within & without smother me. I lose sight of the Light all too often, especially in trials & disappointments. I forget the truths of Scripture, defaulting instead to my own convoluted thought-patterns & heart-emotions to help me make sense of my burdens.

& it burns me every.time.

It only leaves me with tears, doubts, fears, & a wavering heart moved by the slightest wind of something uncomfortable.

I lack self-control in bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ & reminding myself of His Word instead of chewing on mine. I panic when I ought to pray. I worry & over-think when I ought to slow down, breathe, & remember Who saved my soul from Hell. It’s not glorifying to Him in the slightest.

If He could cut a heart of stone from my chest & replace it with a heart of flesh,
if He could speak this magnificent world into existence with a word,
if He could breathe the breath of Life into the nostrils of Man,
then He can certainly be trusted to carry my burdens.

I sinfully forget all this all too often & I’d for sure forgotten it again when I swiped into my friend’s story on The Gram. It was a much-needed reminder & I was grateful.

I texted her about it privately & she shared a curious thing with me: this wasn’t the only place she’d stumbled on those 2 words while she was out & about. They’d been popping up left & right in her city…on street signs, light-poles, random sides of buildings.

Someone was leaving these lil hope-filled reminders like Pippin lighting the beacons of Gondor or Aquila lighting Rutupiae Light 1 last time in defiance against the Dark.
Someone, presumably out of their own sense of need (’cause why else do we remind others of things? probably ’cause we need those reminders ourselves most of all…) was slapping the phrase “endless courage” on whatever surface they could find.

It was clandestine, like a lil head-nod & smile saying
“hey, you, yeah you, with the tired eyes & the drooping shoulders,
you, with the heavy heart & weary limbs,
you, exhausted from the fight & the heat of battle,
you, with the fake smile under tear-stained cheeks,
you, with the anger & the bitterness growing weeds in your soul,
you, wondering if day will come again,
you, real close to letting despair take you away on its seductive ocean-tide,
you, somehow trying to see the good in All Of This;

fight on.”

So imagine my immense, jaw-dropping (literally) surprise when I got a notification at work this morning saying someone commented on an old post from a year ago where I referenced the photo my friend sent me,
only to discover that the person who commented was the 1 who started this whole lovely Adventure.

His Insta handle had me curious ’cause it mirrored the words graffitied on the wall so I high-tailed it over to his page & I couldn’t believe it…

The way he spray-painted the words “endless courage” on a wooden board EXACTLY matched the angle of the letters my friend saw on that blue-grey, paint-peeling wall.

So naturally I stalkedahemhuntedaheminvestigated.

Turns out he’s made this a full-time job; he moonlights as a Lantern Bearer, someone who raises a light in the midst of the darkness & the wind. He’s printed up stickers that say “endless courage” & he leaves them wherever he goes in the city he & my friend call home. A big city which just so happens to be several states away from where I live.

Isn’t that incredible, lovely humans?

Someone, miles away, going about their ordinary life, seeking to encourage others, writes something on a wall.
My friend “happens” to be walking right where this Image Bearer of God has left their mark.
She shares it to her Insta story ’cause it stirred something within her.
I “happened” to see it & it stirred something in me too, something deep enough that I wrote about it on The Gram.
Months pass & the 1 who spray painted the original words finds that I’ve seen his work & reaches out to let me know how my words on his words encouraged him.
I read that comment & then immediately rush to text my friend (who tells me she’s still been coming across “endless courage” wherever she goes).

& in that moment,
a small lil side-story came full circle.

I dunno…things like this just never fail to utterly astonish me.

The Most High has already written the Story of this grand Universe He’s created. He knew all of That would happen. He ~ordained~ that all of That would happen. & what a privilege to be a part of something so much larger than ourselves.

It’s things like that that keep me fighting.
‘Cause today found me where I was a year ago; struggling to find courage when all I could see were my own sorry attempts at control & my tendency to over-think & foul things up.
&, in His mercy, Christ reminded me of the Truth I’d chosen to forget: He’s still in control…He’s always been in control & so I have nothing to fear.

May this encourage you like it did me.
Yeah, you, with the spiraling thoughts & defeated sighs:
endless courage.
you are not now,
nor have you ever been
alone 🖤

death to the Shadow
courage,
always courage
behold,
we have not lived in vain.