The subjects of wisdom and courage have warranted discussion on many levels for a long time. These two qualities or attributes are critical to the development of leaders.

Mark Amend added a significant level to the dimension of our understanding and application of these two words when he said, “Wisdom is learning to let go when you want to hang on. Courage is learning to hang on when you want to let go.”

How many people or projects have we held on to that were destructive, when wisdom said we should have let go long before?

How many times have we let go when the courage to hang on one more day or week would have delivered success?

We need to develop the posture of learning. Wisdom and courage provide great benefit when we learn from them.

Learning to let go even when our emotions are telling us something contrary, and learning to hang on when the appearance of letting go makes sense, are foundational components to demonstrating wisdom and courage.

Spiritual leaders today need to learn the potent combination of these two attributes.