Thought a lot about heroic courage this week as I read Acts 5:17-42.  It prompted me to think about the heroic courage of John and Betty Stam, my maternal gandpa's brother and his wife who were beheaded because of the fact that they were foreigners and because of the fact that they were witnesses for Christ.  We don't need exactly this kind of heroic courage, at least right now.  Hopefully, we never have to have it but the fact is we do need heroic courage just to live life the way we know we should live it.  The big question is 'how do we get it'?
It is a big question and I won't pretend that I can give a conclusive or a comprehensive answer in the space of these few short lines.  I would, though, like to share an insight I gained from Timothy Keller.  In Acts 5:31, Dr. Luke uses an unusual word, a title really, for Jesus.   He refers to him as 'Prince and Savior'.  (NIV and NASB)  The RSV renders it 'Leader and Savior'.  It is the word translated 'prince' and 'leader' that is the unusual word in the Greek.  It is only used four times in the New Testament according to Keller.  One of the other places is Hebrews 12:2: "...looking unto Jesus the author and perfector...".  'Author' is the word. Interestingly, it is the same title that in other ancient Greek literature is used of Hercules and other heroes of Greek mythology.  Thus the connection with the notion of heroic courage.  Jesus had heroic courage. It was courage of a different kind than Hercules had but courage nonetheless.
One of the ways we can get heroic courage is by looking to Jesus.  Do you remember the scene in the movie, 'The Patriot', where the character portrayed by Mel Gibson in the climactic battle scene rallies the colonial army by picking up the flag that had fallen and charging back toward the advancing British troops?  The fleeing colonial army looks at his courage and it gives them courage and slowly, one by one, they turn and follow him and the tide of the battle is turned.
In the battles we face, as our courage falters, we can look to Jesus, and then one by one we too can have our courage renewed.