What Makes You a Coward
Silence is a coward’s refuge. Pretending you’re fine might protect your image, but it’s costing you your life.
You can have the career. The family. The reputation. You can check every box — and still feel hollow. Because you weren’t made to perform for applause and survive behind walls. You were made to live wide open, from a heart set on fire by the truth of your true identity. An identity forged through fire, shaped by the hand of God. Jesus didn’t die so you could live a half-life. He said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). But instead of life to the full, you walk around exhausted, disconnected, and quietly wondering, “Is this all there is?”
The signs are there. You just might be too used to ignoring them.
- You’re always performing. You’re the strong one. The funny one. The reliable one. Everyone’s favorite... but underneath, you’re tired — and you don’t know how much longer you can fake it.
- You avoid silence. Stillness strips away your defenses. In the quiet, the pain, fear, and shame you’ve shoved down start screaming — and you’re not sure what to do with it.
- You struggle to say what you need. You minimize, you bottle it up, you “keep the peace.” But your heart is suffocating under the weight of everything you refuse to name.
- You feel disconnected from others. Surface-level friendships feel safer than risking real connection. But deep down, you’re starving for real community — the kind that heals, sharpens, and strengthens.
This isn’t living. It’s surviving. And survival will eventually kill your soul.
The Bible doesn’t call us to survival mode. It calls us to courage. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). That doesn’t just mean bravery in battles or big decisions. It means courage to tell the truth about your own life. Courage to be seen. Courage to be vulnerable.
Pretending is easy. Living with your heart exposed takes a different kind of strength — the kind Jesus modeled when He wept publicly, when He asked for help, when He bore the cross fully seen and fully surrendered.
You can stay hidden. You can keep surviving. You can cling to your carefully managed image. But don’t fool yourself — silence doesn’t protect you. It imprisons you.
It’s time to step into something deeper.
If you're ready to stop surviving and start living from your true identity, The Crucible Project is here to walk with you. Attend a Crucible Men’s or Women’s Retreat. Sign up for a free coaching intro session with a certified Crucible coach. Step into radical honesty, real brotherhood or sisterhood, and deep soul work that will wreck your fake life in all the best ways.
Stop hiding. Start healing. It’s your move.
Check out this podcast episode where Roy Wooten and Byron Myers talk about taking risks and getting unstuck:
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