Courageous...in the modern world, sometimes we just need to engage...

In our modern times, buried in "things to do" and surrounded by moral murkiness and situational ambiguity, coping by looking the other way can sometimes seem the thing to do.  Problem is, you do it once and just let it go, it makes the next instance easier.  Then the next one, and the next.  And the lapses you can let go become larger and larger.  Slowly but surely, it becomes more acceptable to "look the other way" and declare a situation or someone's issues "not my problem".  Push that enough, you start getting a world that looks like our world.  Where problems great and small that should be confronted are let go, and homes, hearts and communities that should be nurtured are put aside in pursuit of ambition, material success and the impulse of the moment.  To see what that looks like, just pick up a newspaper or turn on the news (what passes for it today) and that is the result.

What to do about it?  Well, that is what this film grapples with.  Directed and co-written by Alex Kendrick (Fireproof, Facing the Giants), Courageous is about personal character and the courage it takes to raise your head up and notice the things going on around you with yourself, your family, your workplace and your community and make the changes you can and should make.  Shane Fuller is a police officer in a small Georgia town.  The film has him as one of the responding officers to a car jacking.  He meets Nathan Hayes there, who seemed to be taking a huge personal risk to recover his stolen truck.  It turns out his young son was on board.  Nathan is also a new hire at their department, a sheriff's office.

Later, at a squad briefing, the sheriff encourages his deputies to become more involved with their families, and as time goes on and we find more about their families, they all have some kind of familial issue or other.  Eventually, Javier Martinez, a laid off worker, falls into their circle in a way that Javier calls a blessing of God, giving him temporary employment and eventually a full time job, where he is confronted with tests of character.

And that is what the film consists of, putting these characters in situations where they are pressured to compromise their character in various circumstances, and about how they bear up under this pressure. Or not, in some cases.

Eventually, Fuller comes up with a Resolution to "honor God in every aspect of his family" and encourages his circle to sign on board with it.  They do.  And the tests against the Resolution come.  Later, Fuller is shown introducing the Resolution to a church congregation, challenging others to take it up. The film ends with Joshua 24:15: "Choose today who you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

This is an excellent Christian film, but it's message of responsible, caring engagement with the world around you does not have to be limited to followers of Christ.  In fact, it very much should not be.

Good film, good message.