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EP 43 - The Call to Courage · UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth

0:02
There's a moment that comes for a lot of people.
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Not all at once and not dramatically, but it's a moment
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when hiding stops working. It's not that everything falls
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apart, it's that life suddenly explodes.
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In fact, some from the outside may think that things look
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mostly fine. You're functioning.
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You're showing up. You're doing what needs to be
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done. But internally, something begins
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to shift. Silence starts to feel heavy.
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The same silence that once felt safe now feel suffocating.
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The same boundaries that once felt wise now feel restrictive.
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The same reasons you told yourself for staying quiet no
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longer bring peace. They bring tension.
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You find yourself replaying conversations that you didn't
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have, words that you swallowed, moments when you almost said
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something but didn't, and eventually you start to realize
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something uncomfortable. You're not hiding because you're
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protecting others anymore. You're hiding because you're
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afraid. You're afraid of what speaking
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might cost you. You're afraid of how people
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might see you, afraid of what might change if the truth leaves
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your mouth. And that's usually when
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questions show up. Not loudly, not dramatically,
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Just quietly. What if God is asking you to
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speak not because you're ready and not because everything is
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resolved, but because silence is no longer obedience?
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That moment, that tension, is what we're talking about today.
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Welcome back to Unmasked, the podcast where we take off the
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filters that we hide behind and step into the kind of honesty
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that leads to real freedom. I'm your host, Wesley
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Farnsworth, and this episode is episode 3 of our miniseries From
2:30
Hiding to Helping. In episode 1, we talked about
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the fear of being found out, the fear that keeps us hidden.
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In episode 2, we talked about the prison of perfection, the
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belief that we must have it all together before we're allowed to
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be honest. And today, we step into what
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comes next. Because hiding and perfection
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are internal battles. Courage is where things move
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outward. Courage is where honesty leaves
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the private spaces of your heart and enters the shared spaces of
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your life. And that step is where most
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people get stuck. So today we're talking about the
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call to courage, the moment that God doesn't just invite you to
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stop hiding, but gently, persistently asks you to speak.
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See, there comes a moment in many people's lives when hiding
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simply stops working. Not because everything has
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fallen apart, and not because life suddenly explodes in some
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dramatic way. Often from the outside, things
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look relatively fine. You're functioning, you're
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showing up, you're doing what needs to be done.
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But internally, something is shifting.
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Silence starts to feel heavy. The same silence that one felt
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1. The same silence that once felt
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safe now feel suffocating. The same restraint that once
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felt wise now feels restrictive. The same reasons you told
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yourself for staying quiet, the same reasons you told yourself
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for staying quiet no longer bring peace.
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Instead, they bring tension. You find yourself replaying
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conversations that you didn't have, words that you swallowed,
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moments where you said something but then chose not to.
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And over time, that quiet internal pressure becomes
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impossible to ignore. That's usually when an
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uncomfortable realization begins to surface.
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You're not hiding because you're protecting anyone anymore.
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You're hiding because you're afraid.
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Afraid of what honesty might cost you.
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Afraid of how people might see you if you spoke openly.
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Afraid of what might change if the truth left your mouth and
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entered the world. And somewhere in that tension, a
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quiet question begins to form. Not dramatically, just quietly
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and persistently. What if God is asking you to
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speak not because you're ready and not because everything is
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resolved, but because silence is no longer obedience?
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That question is rarely welcomed at first.
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It disrupts the fragile peace that you've built.
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It challenges the careful balance that you've learned to
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maintain. And it forces you to consider
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something far more uncomfortable than staying quiet.
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The possibility that courage is now required.
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That's what we're talking about. The moment when God doesn't just
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invite us out of hiding, but gently and persistently calls us
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into the courage. Courage is one of those words
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that sound inspiring until it becomes personal.
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We admired courage and other people.
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In fact, we quote it. We celebrate it.
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We build narratives around it. But when courage shows up in our
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own lives, it rarely looks heroic.
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It looks unsettling. It looks risky.
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It looks like standing at the edge of something that you
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didn't plan to step into. Most people assume that courage
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begins when you when fear disappears, but that's almost
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never how it works. You see, fear doesn't fear
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doesn't fade. You see, fear doesn't fade
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before courage arrives. Fear is usually what signals
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that courage. Fear is usually what signals
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that courage is being invited. Courage is in the absence of
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fear. Courage is choosing obedience
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when fear is still very present. And that matters because so many
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people are waiting to feel ready before they move.
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They're waiting for confidence, clarity, certainty, or some
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internal sign that finally tells them now it's safe.
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They assumed that if God truly wanted them to speak, the fear
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would go away first. But Scripture tells us a very
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different story. Time and time again, God calls
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people who are afraid, people who hesitate, people who feel
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unqualified, people who are painfully aware of what they
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might lose. Joshua wasn't confident when God
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asked him to lead. He had to watch Moses, a
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towering figure of faith and leadership, die.
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He knew the responsibility that he was inheriting and he knew
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the people that he was being asked to lead.
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And that's why God didn't tell him to be gifted or capable.
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God told him to be courageous. Or look at Esther.
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Esther didn't rush into her calling with enthusiasm.
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She calculated the risk. She understood that speaking
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could cost her her position, her safety, and even her life.
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Moses. Moses didn't eagerly step
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forward either. He argued.
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He deflected. He listed reasons why He wasn't
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the right person. In every one of these stories,
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courage did not come before fear.
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Fear came first. This tells us something
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important. God does not wait for comfort
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before He calls. He waits for willingness.
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And that's why we're called to courage.
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Often, after a season of hiding, God doesn't.
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God does quiet work first. He deals with us privately
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before he ever invites us to move publicly.
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He brings truth into places that we've avoided.
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He heals wounds that we've learned to ignore.
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He reshapes our hearts and solitude.
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And then at some point, often when we least expect it, he
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invites us to step forward. That invitation almost never
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feels convenient. It often comes when life is
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finally stabilized again, when things feel manageable, When
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you've rebuilt enough that you don't want to risk losing
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ground. When you have found a rhythm
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that feels safe again, And suddenly courage feels
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disruptive, that's when the internal negotiation begins.
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You start asking questions that sound reasonable on the surface,
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but often carry fear just beneath them.
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Do I really need to say anything?
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Isn't this between me and God? What if people misunderstand me?
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What if this changes how people see me?
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What if it cost me credibility or trust?
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What if it opens doors that I can't close again?
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Those questions don't mean that you lack faith.
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They mean that you understand the weight of honesty because
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once something is spoken, it can't be unspoken.
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Silence feels safer because it feels reversible.
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Speaking feels permanent, and that's why no matter what.
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And that's why so many people choose silence.
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Not because they don't care, but because they care deeply.
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They care about their families, their communities, their
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churches, their friendships, their leadership roles, their
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sense of belonging. They don't want to create
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discomfort and they don't want to be misunderstood.
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They don't want to disrupt the lives that they have worked so
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hard to build. But silence always comes with a
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cost. Silence costs authenticity.
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It costs connection. It costs peace.
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Eventually the cost of silence becomes heavier than the cost of
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speaking, and that is usually when the tension becomes
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unavoidable. You begin to feel like you're
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living 2 versions of yourself, not in a dramatic sense, but in
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a quiet one. Then there's a version that
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people do see, the one that's composed, functioning,
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dependable. But the one they don't see
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exists still beneath the surface, guarded, careful, aware
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of what it's holding back. Carrying that divide takes a lot
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of energy. It takes a lot of energy to
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remember what you've shared and what you haven't, and who you've
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shared it with and haven't shared it with.
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It takes energy to manage that perception.
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It takes energy to keep the story straight.
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And over time, that energy drain shows up as exhaustion,
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irritability, numbness, or restlessness that you can't
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quite explain. And that's often when God begins
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to nudge, not with condemnation and not with accusation, but
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with an invitation. Sometimes a nudge comes through
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scripture that suddenly feels personal.
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Sometimes it comes through a conversation that lingers longer
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than expected. Sometimes it comes through
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watching someone else speak honestly and realizing that deep
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down you wish you could do the same thing.
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Sometimes it comes when someone opens up to you and they share
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their struggle, and you realize that your story could help, but
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you choose to stay quiet, and afterward something feels off.
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That feeling. It matters because the call to
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courage rarely comes as a command.
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It comes as an invitation, and invitations can be declined when
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God asks you to stop hiding and start speaking.
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When invitation from God is declined, it rarely feels
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dramatic. There's no Thunder, There's no
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confrontation. There's no immediate consequence
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that makes it obvious that something important just
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happened. Most of the time, declining.
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Most of the time, declining coverage simply looks like
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choosing comfort, choosing silence, and choosing to wait.
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You tell yourself that you'll speak later when you're further
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along. You'll speak up when things
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fear, when things feel clearer, when the timing feels better,
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when the risk feels lower. And in that moment, that choice
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feels reasonable. But what often follows is not
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peace, it's stagnation. Life doesn't fall apart
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immediately. You keep functioning, you keep
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showing up, you keep doing the things that you've always done.
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But internally, something begins to dull.
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The sense of forward movement slows down.
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The clarity that you once felt becomes cloudy, and the joy that
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you expected to return after and the joy that you expected to
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return after getting through that season doesn't quite
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arrive. That's because courage delayed
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doesn't stay neutral. It quietly reshapes the heart.
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When God invites us to speak and we repeatedly choose silence,
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fear gains leverage. Not all at once, but slowly.
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The longer we avoid obedience, the more intimidating it feels.
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What once felt like a manageable step begins to feel impossible.
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The story that we tell ourselves grows heavier.
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The reasons feel more convincing, the excuses sound
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more responsible. And over time we start confusing
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wisdom with avoidance. We convince ourselves that
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staying quiet is the mature choice, that speaking would be
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disruptive, that honesty would create more problems than it
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solves, that silence is kindness.
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The kindness that costs integrity eventually costs
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peace. One of those subtle dangers of
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declining courage is that it teaches us to live with internal
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disordience. We learn how to function while
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something inside us knows that we're holding back.
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And the longer that that exists, the more normalized it becomes.
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You stop noticing it right away, and it fades into the
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background, but it shows up in other ways.
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It shows up as restlessness that you can't explain, as irrability
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that feels disproportionate, a spiritual dryness that doesn't
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respond to familiar practices, as a sense that you're busy but
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not fulfilled. These aren't signs of failure,
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They're signals. They're signs that something
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inside you knows you were created for more than survival,
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more than maintenance, more than carefully managed faith.
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God never invites us to courage to punish us.
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He invites us because stagnation is not where life is found.
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This is where the story of Esther becomes especially
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powerful. When Mordecai urges her to
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speak, he doesn't deny the risk. He doesn't minimize the danger.
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He acknowledges it fully, in fact, but then he reframes the
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moment. If you remain silent, relief
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will come from another place, but you and your family will
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miss the opportunity. That line is haunting because it
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reveals something that we often don't want to admit.
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God's purposes will move forward with or without our
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participation. Obedience is not about whether
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God's will succeeds. It's about whether we're a part
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of it. When God calls you to courage,
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he's not threatening you. He's inviting you into
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alignment, into purpose, into participation in something
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bigger than your comfort. And that's where the tension
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becomes deeply personal. Because saying yes means giving
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up control. Silence allows us to manage
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perception. It allows us to decide what
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people know and don't know. It allows us to create the
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version of ourselves that feels safest to present courage, hands
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that control over to God. Though once you speak, you can't
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manage how people receive it. Some will hear hope, others will
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hear a threat, some will lean in, and others are going to pull
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away. And you don't get to choose
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which is which. That loss of control is often
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the hardest part. For people who've learned how to
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survive by being careful, measured, and self aware,
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courage feels reckless. Even when it's obedient.
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It feels like stepping out into unstable ground.
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It feels like trusting God with outcomes that you've always
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tried to manage yourself. And yet Scripture consistently
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shows that this is where God meets people the most
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powerfully. Not when they have everything
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under control, but when they release it.
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Paul understood this. He didn't build his ministry on
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perfection or Polish. He built it on testimony.
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He spoke openly about his past, his weaknesses, his dependence
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on grace. He didn't pretend that his story
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disqualified him. He understood that.
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Instead it equipped him. His authority didn't come from
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flawlessness, it came from honesty.
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And that is still true. People don't connect with
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perfection, they connect with truth.
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Let me say that again. People don't connect to
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perfection, they connect to truth.
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They don't need your life to be tidy.
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They don't need your life to be real.
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When you speak from humility instead of performance, your
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story becomes an invitation rather than a spotlight.
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It tells people that they're not alone.
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It tells them that their growth is possible.
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It tells them that God meets people in process.
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But courage still costs something.
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Not everyone will understand. Some people may distance
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themselves, some assumptions may change, and some doors might
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close. But that's not failure.
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That's refinement. Every season of courage
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clarifies relationships. It reveals who's who.
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It reveals who values honesty and who prefers comfort.
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It exposes when connections were built on image and which ones
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were built on truth. That can be painful though, but
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it's also freeing because when you stop hiding, you stop
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performing, and when you stop performing, you createspace for
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authentic connection. This is where many people notice
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the shift, the moment that they take a deep step of courage and
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something changes internally. Fear doesn't disappear, but the
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weight lifts slightly, the tension eases, the internal
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divide begins to close. You don't feel fully free yet,
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but you feel aligned. And alignment brings peace, not
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because everything is resolved, but because you're no longer
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resisting what God is doing. Small acts of courage matter
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more than we realize. They compound.
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They build momentum. They reshape identity.
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Each step makes the next one possible.
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Courage doesn't usually look like a dramatic confession or a
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public declaration. More often, it looks like an
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honest answer instead of a deflection.
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It looks like telling the truth in a trusted space.
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It looks like saying I'm not OK instead of I'm fine.
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Those moments may feel insignificant, but they're not.
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They are the hinge points of transformation.
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Because courage is contagious. When one person speaks, honesty
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it. When one person speaks honestly,
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it gives others permission to speak up.
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When one person stops hiding, it disrupts the culture of silence.
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When one person chooses truth, it creates space for healing.
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And that's why God calls people to courage, not for attention
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and not for exposure, but for multiplication.
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Your obedience may become somebody else's breakthrough.
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Your honesty may become someone else's permission.
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Your courage may become somebody else's first step, and that's
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when the journey begins to shift from hiding to helping.
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See, there's a moment, often quieter than we expect, when
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courage begins to shift into something deeper.
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It stops being about the fear of speaking, and it starts becoming
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more about the responsibility of stewardship.
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Once you take that first step and you answer honestly instead
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of deflecting. Once you stop hiding in at least
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one place, you begin to realize that your story is no longer
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just yours to manage. It has weight.
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It has reach. It has purpose beyond your own
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relief. And that realization can be
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unsettling, because relief is one thing, responsibility is
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another. Many people are willing to be
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honest if honesty only costs vulnerability.
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Fewer are willing when honesty starts to shape direction, when
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it begins to invite purpose, when it opens the possibility
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that God may want to use what you've lived and not just heal
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you from it. This is where courage deepens.
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The first acts of courage are usually personal.
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They're not about integrity. They're about alignment.
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They're about peace. They're about closing the gap
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between who you are internally and how you live externally.
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But as that gap closes, something else begins to happen.
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You begin to notice that your honesty is resonating with
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others, that your words carry weight that you didn't expect,
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that people lean in not because you're impressive, but because
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you're real. And that's often when fear
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returns, not the fear of being found out, but the fear of being
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called forward because now the question shifts.
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It's no longer what if people know?
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It becomes, what if God actually wants to use this?
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That question can feel overwhelming.
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It can bring a new layer of hesitation, a new set of
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negotiations that you handle internally.
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You may start wonder, worrying. You may start worrying about
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expectations, about consistency, about whether you can sustain
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this level of honesty, about whether stepping forward means
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that you're signing up for something that you're not ready
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to carry. This is when many people try to
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pull back. They're relieved by honesty but
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intimidated by calling. They're grateful for freedom,
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but they're unsure about responsibility.
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They want healing without platform, relief without reach,
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restoration without direction. But God rarely stops at healing.
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Healing isn't the beginning, it's the end.
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Scripture shows us this pattern repeatedly.
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God restores people not so that they can retreat into comfort,
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but so that they can step into purpose.
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Not because he wants to burden them, but because He wants to
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redeem what they've lived through.
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This is the moment when courage matters in.
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This is the moment when courage matures into obedience.
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Obedience doesn't always mean speaking louder.
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Sometimes it means speaking more intentionally.
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It means listening for God's leading instead of reacting
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emotionally. It means discerning where, when,
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and how to use your story and what is meant to be shared.
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Because courage without discernment can become noise.
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But courage guided by obedience becomes ministry.
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This is where many people misunderstand calling.
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They assume that calling requires certainty, clarity, and
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confidence. But calling usually unfolds
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gradually. It reveals itself through
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obedience, not planning, through faithfulness, not strategy.
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You don't step into calling by having everything figured out.
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You step into it by saying yes to the next faithful step.
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That step might be small, it might be quiet.
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It might be unseen by most people.
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But it matters. It might look like choosing
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honesty in a relationship that you've kept guarded.
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It might look like you sharing a part of your story in a space
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that feels safe but stretching. It might look like allowing
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yourself to be known without rushing to explain or defend
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yourself. Those steps feel ordinary, but
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they're holy because they create a space for God to work beyond
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you. One of the most freeing
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realizations in this stage is understanding that your story
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doesn't belong to you the way that you think it does.
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It was entrusted to you. It was shaped in you, refined
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through you, but ultimately it's meant to.
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But ultimately, it's meant to serve something greater than
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your own comfort. That doesn't mean that you lose
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ownership of it. It means that you stop hiding it
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in fear. When God begins to use what you
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once hid, something remarkable happens.
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Shame loses its grip. Fear loses his hold.
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That part of your story that once felt like liabilities
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begins to feel like points of connection.
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Not because they're impressive, and not because they're
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dramatic, but because they're honest.
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People don't need you to have a perfect testimony, they need you
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to have a truthful one. They don't need you to present a
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finished product. They need to see what faith
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looks like in process. That is where hope is born.
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Hope isn't born when people see someone who's arrived.
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Hope is born when people see somebody who's walking.
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And this is where courage fully transforms.
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It's no longer about proving anything.
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It's no longer about defending your credibility.
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And it's no longer about managing perception.
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It becomes about faithfulness and stewardship, about obedience
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to what God is doing in and through you.
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That doesn't mean that every door is going to open, and it
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doesn't mean that every person will understand it.
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It doesn't mean that every path will be easy.
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And it doesn't mean that the path will be meaningful.
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Because when courage turns into calling, your life stops
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revolving around self protection and starts moving towards
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service. That's the shift.
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It's subtle at first. You begin to notice that your
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words carry comfort for others and that your presence creates
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safety. That your honesty gives people
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permission to breathe, to be real, to stop pretending.
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And you realize that what you once feared might destroy you is
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now being used to strengthen someone else.
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That, my friends, is redemption. That's God taking what was
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hidden and making it helpful, what was painful, and making it
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purposeful, what was private, and making it powerful in the
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quietest, most grace filled way. This doesn't happen overnight.
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It unfolds slowly, gently, through obedience that feels
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small but matters deeply. And it requires continued
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courage. Because courage isn't A1 time
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decision. It's a posture, a way of living
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that chooses honesty over image, obedience over comfort, and
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faithfulness over fear. You don't arrive at courage and
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stay there. You practice it, you return to
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it. You choose it again and again,
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especially when it would be easier to retreat.
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But each time you choose it, the weight lifts a little bit more,
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the fear loosens a little bit more, the clarity deepens a
33:30
little bit more, and you find yourself no longer asking, what
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if this costs me? And you begin asking, who might
33:38
this help? That is when you know that the
33:42
shift has happened. As we close this episode, I want
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to invite you into reflection, not pressure.
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Ask yourself where courage is being invited into your life
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right now. Not recklessness, not
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oversharing courage. Where has God been nudging you
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to speak, to be honest, to stop hiding behind silence?
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What fear rises up when you imagine that step?
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And what might God be inviting you to trust Him with?
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You don't have to take every step today.
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You don't have to know where the road leads.
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You just have to take the next faithful step.
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Because courage isn't loud, it's obedient.
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In the next episode, we'll bring this series home by talking
34:37
about what happens when courage becomes service, when God takes
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what you have once hid and uses it to help others.
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When your story stops being something that you protect and
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become something that you offer. Episode 4 of this miniseries is
34:57
called From Hiding to Helping. Until then, remember this.
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God is not calling you to be fearless.
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He is calling you to be faithful.
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And sometimes faith sounds like telling the truth and trusting
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God with what comes next. Thanks for joining me today on
35:32
Unmasked. If something in this episode
35:34
spoke to you, don't let it stop with you.
35:38
Share it with the person that God put on your heart while you
35:40
were listening. You never know whose
35:42
breakthrough might start with just a simple message.
35:46
If you want more encouragement, you want to work with me
35:49
one-on-one, or you're interested in having me speak at your
35:52
church or event, you can find everything@wesleyfarnsworth.com
35:57
and make sure that you join the Unmasked community by connecting
36:00
with me on social media so that we can keep walking this journey
36:03
together. Until next time, remember that
36:07
grace is greater than your past and real freedom begins the
36:11
moment that we choose to live unmasked.
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God bless you.