Nerve as Faith

I’ve spent a decent amount of time thinking about the word nerve.

It’s the key word in Edwin Friedman’s book, A Failure of Nerve.

I can’t say I’ve ever wasted any minute spent meditating on nerve, its meaning and the related network of concepts.

In discussion about high-agency, nerve connects with the idea of disagreeability. It also seems to involve some mix of hope/optimism and zeal.

I have also spent time thinking about what biblical word overlaps most onto nerve. It’s possible that it takes multiple words to color in all the meaning; think courage, think of self-control and sober-mindedness. In some ways how Friedman defines nerve as gravity seems to have a lot of overlap with love, with affections.

But thinking about it again, maybe the best word is FAITH.

It’s a kind of believing confidence that both anchors someone to hold fast when the wind is blowing against them and also a wind in the sail that compels a person in the right direction.

Even related to the subtitle of Friedman’s book, “Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix,” faith obviously is, by definition, not living on the things that are seen and immediate.

All that to say, living by FAITH is needed as much now as ever.