You’re Not the Only One Who Feels Afraid :) I’ve been thinking about fear lately. How we all face it. How we all fight it. How we all want to be free from it. It’s one of those things that makes us distinctly, beautifully, frustratingly human. We fear rejection. We fear our future. We fear the monsters that might be hiding under the bed. Thankfully, there is a way to chase away fear in this world… “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” {I John 4:18}. Yes, yes, the verse above is talking about God’s love but we are the ones holding the flashlights for him. Sometimes when our own fear gets the best of us we use those flashlights in entirely different ways than he intended. We smack each other with them through unkind words. We refuse to share them because we’re worried there won’t be enough light for us too. We turn them off in protest over being mistreated and retreat to the shadows. Then we tend to justify this behavior by telling ourselves, “They’re not afraid and I am.” But what we all have in common is this: We are all scared. And we all need love. Yes, we show our fear differently. Some of us try hard. Some of us lash out. Some of us withdraw. But we all experience fear. And when we deny that’s true, we stay in the dark and scare each other silly even more. Loving and being loved are always risky. Always. If you reach out to others—even just giving a hug, offering a smile, saying a kind word—then you are being wild and brave and chasing away the night of this life. Don’t let anyone fool you. Being critical and cool and distant are just fancy ways to hide in the shadows. Dare to banish the dark. Dare to turn on the light. Dare to love.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 06:37:23 +0000
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