{"id":231349,"date":"2024-12-16T15:56:16","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T20:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liveoriginal.com\/?p=231349"},"modified":"2024-12-17T12:00:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T17:00:47","slug":"name-your-fears-and-embrace-the-extraordinary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liveoriginal.com\/name-your-fears-and-embrace-the-extraordinary\/","title":{"rendered":"Name Your Fears and Embrace the Extraordinary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember the television show <\/span>Fear Factor<\/span><\/i>, where people confronted a few of their deepest fears? The show was canceled, but our fears don\u2019t get resolved as easily. I\u2019m not afraid of very many things, except sharks and spiders and snakes (which is totally normal) and venom-spitting koala bears (there is no such animal, but if there were, I know I would be afraid of them). Some people are afraid of being late or misunderstood or canceled or shunned. Some people are afraid they will lose their job, and others are afraid they will keep it.<\/span><\/p>\n

We all have fears. What distinguishes us from each other is how we deal with our fears. Some people try to ignore them. This strategy might appear to be working in the short term, when what is actually happening is a boatload of deferral. Our unaddressed fears compound interest and grow in size and in the power they have over us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another approach is to confront our fears in small increments\u2014not unlike inching our way into a cold lake by slowly shuffling our feet forward. Feet, ankles, and after a long period of time we might make it up to our knees. Progress is slow and unsatisfying. But the healthiest way to deal with our fears isn\u2019t to grab our knees and do a cannonball in an attempt to beat them back, it is to understand them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plenty of times Jesus asked people who had good reason to be fearful the reason why. He asked a couple of the men in a sinking boat, \u201cWhy are you so afraid?\u201d A seemingly unreasonable question to a boat full of guys who perhaps knew they could not swim to shore. There was no mention of life jackets, life rings, and rescue boats. These seem like questions with obvious answers, but only until you consider the circumstance more deeply and understand that there was much more going on under the surface than in the boat.<\/span><\/p>\n

God doesn\u2019t ask us to ignore or dismiss our fears but instead to understand them. When we figure out what our fears are attached to, we can ask God for the kind of supernatural help we need to overcome them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus doesn\u2019t force Himself or His ideas on anyone, not on me or on you or on others, even though we are all desperately in need of His involvement in our lives. Instead, He puts the ball in our court. He asks us the unexpected questions and then waits for us to acknowledge our true needs and receive what He offers: love, acceptance, and a relationship with Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes God will lead us into difficult situations where our fears are triggered. His hope is that we would realize our desperate need for Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about it for a minute. What are you afraid of today? The way to take away the power fear may hold over us is to name what it is we\u2019re afraid of, understand the origins of our fear, and then take these fears to Jesus to overcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of us can come up with a list of our concerns and fears, but what may take a little more digging is figuring out where these fears originated. If it is a fear of rejection you harbor, go back to your earliest memory of being rejected. See yourself in that time and at that place and remember what it felt like. That was you back then, but it doesn\u2019t need to be you right now. You have changed and grown and learned what to trust and who to trust. You might ask Jesus to help you find your confidence in Him and His promise that He\u2019s not going anywhere, ever.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t