A few years later, while reading Thomas Aquinas on the virtue of courage, I happened across a vice he called pusillanimity, which means “smallness of soul.” Those afflicted by this vice, wrote Aquinas, shrink back from all that God has called them to be. When faced with the effort and difficulty of stretching themselves to the great things of which they are capable, they cringe and say, “I can’t.” Their faintheartedness comes from relying on their own puny powers and focusing on their own potential for failure, instead of counting on God’s grace to equip them for great kingdom work—work beyond
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