For most of my life I’ve found myself scared. Whether it was the monsters under the bed at the age of two, boys and their cooties in elementary school, or of my potential in my adult life, there’s something about fear. While most of us would like to say that we aren’t afraid, that we don’t care what others think about us, if we are honest, fear has become a friend. Fear is something that is easy to hold close. It’s comfortable and normal. For many of us, if we were asked to describe a life without fear, we would struggle to articulate it. Is it a dream-like state? Something that feels free, but at the same time a foreign land and recklessly wild?
On this Monday, I’m reminding my heart to take courage. There will be moments today where I will face the unknown and there will be times this week where the tasks ahead feel daunting. It would be easy to cower down and hide. It would be easy to let fear lead my heart throughout the day rather than truth. It would be easy to rely on this rather than the love, hope, and courage inside of me. But what is the brave response? If I were instructing others or watching my story on the silver screen, what choices would I make overcoming fear and conflict within? Would my life be worth watching?
Today, friends, may your heart take courage. Choose the wild and foreign land of freedom over fear. Come out of the icy towers you have created to keep yourself safe and come down into the fields and meadows to play. Courage sees and calls us out into more.