How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

“Arriving at the entrance to the ‘Church of the Presidents,’ attended by every chief magistrate since James Madison, the president pivoted to face the bank of television cameras, holding an upside-down Holy Bible. ‘This is a great country,’ he said. After a few more photos were taken, the president turned and left, speaking to no one.”

Budde paints the scene of Trump’s misuse of St. John’s Church, specifically highlighting his upside-down hold on the Bible. She does not comment explicitly on this gesture, instead allowing the inverted image to symbolize Trump’s use of the Bible for unchristian, political aims.

“We are, as they say, all in, shapers of our destiny, and cocreators with God. For as the word itself suggests, in a decisive moment, we decide.”

In her introduction to decisive moments, Budde connects the idea of decision to the idea of creation. Human beings possess free will, and she illustrates how people join together with God in shaping their destinies collaboratively.

“Ultimately, what I want to communicate in these pages is that heroic possibilities lie within each of us; that the inexplicable, unmerited experience of God’s power working through us is real; and that we matter in the realization of all that is good and noble and true. We can learn to be brave.”

Budde explicitly states her goal in writing How We Learn to Be Brave. She wants to help her readers unlock the courage present within them and realize how God is working through them in their lives.