Illus-Fear

FEARLESS LIVING

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.

\\ -- Steve Goodier

LifeSupport@yahoogroups.com January 23, 2008