What do you want readers to take away from this book?

I hope that they see a glimpse of the joy that awaits them when they follow God along the more jagged edges of faith. Certainly, the work of justice brings marvelous rescue and restoration to the victims of injustice, but God wants us to know that this work brings benefits to the people who do it as well. It is a means of rescuing us from a world of accumulated triviality and small fears.

I believe that God is issuing a clear call to His church to join the struggle for justice in the world. For those who follow Him there will be transformation, for answering this call to justice requires the very thing that we are all yearning for: courage.

Why is risk-free living opposed to God’s will for believers?

I think that many Western Christians believe that if they somehow insulate themselves and their families from the dangers they perceive in the world, they will find security and peace that will bring a deep and real experience of God. But this is not what we find in Scripture. We find that God is calling us to follow him into the hard things, the scary things, and the dark corners of this world in order to bring His goodness, His truth, and His light. And we find that in order to be brave enough to walk with God on this journey, we must choose not to be safe.

In Just Courage, I write a little bit about cul-de-sacs—how American homeowners once believed that these dead ends were the safest street configuration for their children, as they would protect them from the dangers of passing cars. But over the past few decades, we’ve learned that cars backing up in cul-de-sacs pose more risk than moving traffic on a street. In the same way, there is real danger to our souls in the illusory safety of the stagnant spiritual cul-de-sac. When we are living risk-free lives that don’t require desperately needing God’s help each day, we stop asking for it. Even more dangerous: We begin to believe we don’t need it.

How would you encourage believers to live a life of courage?

At IJM, we are seeking to follow God in the demanding search for justice in his world. Some days, this work is just plain hard. We’ve found that there are a few disciplines that give us the strength to actually do this work each day. In Just Courage, I share three steps I would encourage any believer to take while seeking God’s great adventure.

First, do less, and reflect and pray more. As busy as we are at IJM, we begin every morning by spending 30 minutes doing absolutely “nothing.” We just sit quietly, reflecting, praying, and preparing spiritually for the day. Then, at 11 a.m., we gather together to pray—every day, in every IJM office in 12 countries. Over time, we have found that in the struggle for justice, there isn’t much meaningful work that is actually going to get done unless we spend at least an hour every day “doing nothing”—nothing but seeking the God of justice.

Second, search the promises of Scripture and take a risk. As you wrestle with a decision, ask yourself, Am I being safe, or am I being brave? And trust Jesus to take care of you so well that it is actually safe to be brave as you follow Him. Take a risk and live as if the promises of Scripture were true—because they are.

Third, embark on a lifelong journey of spiritual formation and renovation. We do not become brave by sheer willpower. No, the courage God longs to give to us comes through doing things that require it, and through reformation of the heart. God does not ask us to try to be brave—He calls us to train for it.

What’s the big picture behind this book? How do you want to see the world changed?

I strongly believe that God is changing the world through His call to justice. He wants us to live the abundant, heroic lives for which we were made. He wants those who are being crushed by oppression to live the lives of joyful dignity He intends for them. And He wants to transform all of us in the process. In Isaiah 58:10-11, we are given a beautiful picture of the change God longs to bring to our world through the work of justice:

If you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry
And satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
Then your light will rise in the darkness,
And your night will become like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always;
He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
And will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
Like a spring whose waters never fail.

An Excerpt from Just Courage:

The journey for me has been incredible, but by far the most joyful, exhilarating, and life-altering part has been the authentic experience of God’s presence and power. I have experienced God—and that experience has come in my weakness. God has called us into a battle with violence and aggressive evil that, every day, my colleagues and I know we cannot win without the specific intervention of God. We are forced by our own weakness to beg Him for it, and at times we work without a net, apart from His saving hand. And we have found Him to be real—and His hand to be true and strong—in a way we would never have experienced strapped into our own safety harnesses.

In concrete terms, what does that desperation look like? For me, it means being confronted with a videotape of hundreds of young girls in Cambodia being put on open sale to be raped and abused by sex tourists and foreign pedophiles. It means going into a brothel in Cambodia as part of an undercover investigation and being presented with a dozen girls between the ages of 5 and 10 who are being forced to provide sex to strangers. It means being told by everyone who should know that there is nothing that can be done about it. It means facing death threats for my investigative colleagues, high level police corruption, desperately inadequate aftercare capacities for victims, and a hopelessly corrupt court system. It means going to God in honest argument and saying, “Father, we cannot solve this,” and hearing Him say, “Do what you know best to do, and watch me with the rest.”