Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
11 11 2026
THE SCARS OF SHAME WE HIDE. THE SCARS HE CARRIED.
When Courage Isn’t Enough
What happens when you’ve given everything you have, dug as deep as you know how, and still find yourself without the strength to take another step? What if the greatest courage isn’t found in standing taller, but in surrendering to the One who never falls?
I read about a woman who had undergone a double mastectomy and was struggling with how she looked. She described the horror of seeing her body for the first time after surgery. The scars. The disfigurement. The reflection of a woman she barely recognized. She admitted how devastating that first reaction was, but she gave herself grace for feeling that way and made herself a promise. She would no longer allow shame to dictate how she felt about her body. Her scars were evidence that she had lived. They represented tenacity, resilience, and bravery. The very qualities she wanted her son to possess and
how she wanted him to remember his mother.
And now she recently ran a marathon without a top, exposing those scars to the world, hoping another woman might find the courage to stop hiding hers. She said, “I’m running because I’m still here and because I can.” She wants other women to feel empowered to take charge of their own stories. I applaud her. I really do. There is something extraordinarily courageous about looking the world in the eye and declaring, “You will not define me by what I have lost.” But something about her story has been stirring in my spirit. Because as brave as self-reliance can be, it can also become a trap of another kind.
The world tells us to dig deeper. Believe in yourself. Take control of your story. Never let anyone define you. You are stronger than your scars. And there is truth in some of that. We should not surrender our dignity to the opinions of others. We should not allow shame to steal the life God has given us. But isn’t it amazing how the world can take a piece of truth, wrap it in courage and determination, and leave out the very One who gives life its eternal meaning? We celebrate the strength to overcome, but seldom ask where that strength comes from or what happens when it runs out.
What happens when there is no marathon left to run? When the cancer returns? When the marriage doesn’t recover? When the financial loss cannot be reversed? When the child doesn’t come home? When the scars aren’t visible on our bodies but buried so deeply in our hearts that nobody knows they’re there? What happens when you’ve exhausted every ounce of courage and determination, and the mountain hasn’t moved? The world keeps shouting, “You’ve got this!” But what if you don’t?
Paul knew something about that place. He wrote of being burdened beyond his strength, even despairing of life itself. Yet he discovered something greater than his own ability to endure: “That we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). The answer wasn’t finding another hidden reservoir of human strength.
It was learning to trust the God whose power begins where ours ends.
And then consider Jesus. After His resurrection, He stood before Thomas and invited him to touch the wounds in His hands and side (John 20:27). The resurrected Savior still bore His scars! They were not marks of failure or shame. They testified to the price of love, His sacrifice, and His victory over death. Our scars may tell the world what happened to us.
His scars tell us what He has done for us.
I have a scar like that in my own life. An emotional scar that Satan still rattles at me like the snake he is. I share it when God leads me, but most of the time I keep it private because, quite frankly, it still hurts. And as often as I have laid down the shame, I sometimes wonder whether keeping it private means I’m still carrying some of it. That bothers me. I’ve surrendered it so many times. But God! He keeps loving on me, reminding me that His scars and His blood have already paid the price for my shame. And perhaps I need to remember that a scar can still hurt without shame still owning me. I don’t have to expose every wound to prove I’ve been forgiven. His grace, not my willingness to tell the story, is what sets me free.
There is a courage that stands before thousands and declares, “I will not be ashamed.” And there is another courage that kneels alone beside a bed, tears falling, whispering, “Lord, I cannot do this anymore. I need You.” One may inspire the world, as it should. The other opens our hearts to the transforming grace of God. Jesus never promised that following Him would leave us without wounds. But He did promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
I think about that brave woman and the legacy she wants to leave her son. What a beautiful gift to show him that suffering doesn’t have to define or defeat us. Look, she may be a Christian…I am not here to judge, but her courage got me thinking of something even grander. Imagine an even greater legacy. Not merely, “My mother was strong enough to survive,” but, “My mother showed me where to turn when she wasn’t strong enough anymore.” What if our families and the people watching our lives saw more than our determination? What if they saw Jesus carrying us through what we could never have survived alone?
Maybe the greatest testimony of your life won’t be that you overcame everything that tried to destroy you. Maybe it will be that when you had nothing left, Jesus was still enough. Paul heard the Lord say, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Not in our perfection. Not in our independence. In our weakness.
So carry your scars without shame. Celebrate the victories. Take the next step, ask the next question, run the race God has placed before you. But don’t mistake your ability to keep going for the source of your hope. One day our bodies will weaken, our strength will fade, and the applause will disappear.
But the hands that were pierced for us will never lose their power to hold us.
So Be Brave Enough to Stand but Broken Enough to Kneel.
Your scars may be part of your story, but they do not get to write the ending. Jesus does.
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