FEARLESS LIVING IN LIFE

Frozen food for sale - “Love is like racing across the frozen tundra on a snowmobile which flips over, trapping you underneath. At night, the ice-weasels come.”

A woman traveled by plane with her infant daughter. When they landed, they were met in the waiting area by her father, who took the baby while she proceeded to the baggage claim area.

Standing there alone waiting to claim her luggage, she was absent-mindedly holding the baby's pacifier. She noticed a flight attendant staring at her, then at the pacifier in her hand. The flight attendant finally spoke: "Excuse me, Miss. Is this your first flight?"

Fear of flying has kept many people home. One woman reminds me that her terror of riding in airplanes actually has biblical roots. "We should be wary of flying," she asserts. "In the Bible, Jesus says, 'LO...I'll be with you always'"!

Other common fears have kept countless people from enjoying life fully. Some of the greatest fears we share are a fear of becoming incapacitated, a fear of financial ruin, fear of abandonment and fear of death. Fear may be the most powerful enemy of humanity. And it is an enemy all of us are intimately acquainted with.

As James Bell writes, "Fear is an insidious virus. Given a breeding place in our minds...it will eat away our spirit and block the forward path of our endeavors." Or, like someone else said, "Fear is called the little death - it kills in tiny pieces."

I received a letter from a woman who learned an important lesson about fear. She wrote that one of their children had died some months earlier. Then she said this: "My husband and I went to dinner last night, and...I overheard two women talking about a sister who had lost a child. [One of the women] said, 'I can't get over the change in my sister! She, who once was afraid of her own shadow, has become totally fearless! She is so confident - so brave! She says, 'The worst thing has already happened - what more should I be afraid of?'"

"Steve - that woman is so right! My husband and I started a conversation with these two women and I told them that I agreed with the sister who had lost a child.... The one thing every parent dreads (also) happened to us and, with the grace of God, we lived through it. So we can live through anything else."

By surviving their worst fears imaginable, these women have newfound courage. They believe that nothing can ever happen to them that is worse than what they have already endured; there is nothing that they cannot face with courage and strength.

From Lifesupport.

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