Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Victorious Living

Home
Family, Parenting and Religion
The Medicine of Courage and Consequences

The Medicine of Courage and Consequences

Last updated on: October 27, 2020 at 5:00 am by Victorious Living

The Medicine of Courage and Consequences 2020-09-28T09:22:52-04:00 Victorious Living

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I never loved the phrase “take your medicine”. We saw it in a movie recently where a character was suggesting the group had to come face-to-face with an adversary that had just beat them.

As a kid, like many kids, “medicine” had an extremely negative connotation. I can still taste the aftereffects of grape Dimetapp whenever I hear the word “medicine” said out loud.

The pop culture colloquialism “take your medicine” basically means “face your consequences”. And it is something we don’t love to do.

Why We Have To

Just like myself as a child, our first instinct is to avoid. I might have sold any number of treasures along the way to avoid that grape Dimetapp.

As adults, some things are easier to avoid than when we were kids. I don’t ever have to take cough medicine, for example, if I don’t want to. But I think we take this idea too far. We think that because I can escape one specific manifestation, it means I am “free” of those challenging consequences. But this is not really how freedom works.

When I was a kid, my parents would find me hiding under a bed or behind the clothes in my closet. And in went the Dimetapp.

In the same way, we cannot really avoid consequences. We have to face them. Adults may have more options but they cannot get out of it altogether. I can choose to take my cough medicine or endure an illness. There are consequences either way.

And so, we have to take our medicine. The only difference is we get a little bit of wiggle room surrounding what form the medicine takes. I say a little. The truth is we don’t have much.

The Good It Does

The more time I spend as an adult, the more I realize that one of the great markers between maturity and immaturity is how courageously we take our medicine. How boldly we face our consequences.

The truth-centered adult owns mistakes, makes decisions, and moves forward, using consequences and boundaries as a way to learn, grow, and progress. An immature adult tries all manners of ways to avoid consequences but never seems to outrun them. Like me as a child, they hide under the bed. They toss clothes over their heads and pretend the world is a dark abyss.

Consequences linger the more we try to avoid them. Just like an illness, not taking our medicine with courage causes the effects to last longer and do more damage.

The disturbing trend in modern society is to twist reality so we do not have to face what is uncomfortable. We have created structures to avoid consequences at all costs. And the cost of doing so is a pervasive lack of truth, learning, and progress.

Only by taking our medicine with courage and humility can we turn the tide.

Previous Post

October 22, 2020

The Value of Uncertainty

Next Post

October 29, 2020 After The Fear Is Gone

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Choices Conflict Resolution Culture Change Emotions Failure Faith Fear Freedom V Growth Healthy Communication Hope Identity Influence Leadership Learn Mistakes Mood Curve Ownership Perspective Power Relationships Self-Awareness Self-Governance Systems Thinking Three Things You Control Transformational Leadership Trust Truth Uncategorized Values Vision

Select a Month January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What language was the Old Testament mostly written in?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Aramaic Latin Greek Hebrew

Books by This Author Books by Victorious Living

See All Titles »