Walking into Fear

The very first post I put on this blog was about my fear.  I wrote an intro to a blog I initially had no intention of telling anyone I was going to write.  Of course I can't keep a secret and so 3 posts later my entire family knows and I put a link to it on facebook.  Then I emailed my sister a little something I had written for myself a couple years earlier to see what she thought of it and she basically said, pull yourself together and put it on the blog!  So I did.  And although I themed that post about failure it is also about fear because I realized I feared failure.

Since then I have pushed past lots of fears in my life and have reveled in the joy I experienced on the other side.  I am still surrounded by fears, over come by them some days.  But having learned the reward of pushing beyond them I do not let them control me anymore.

I read a blog by Michael Hyatt and today he has a post about overcoming fear.  He says that:

When I’m afraid, I have a practice of walking right into my fears rather than away from them. If people can get used to that, their fear will dissipate. Most of the power of fear is in your mind; it doesn’t really exist. It’s just this idea that looms because we are unwilling to face it. But the way to declaw it, the way to defuse it, is to step into it—right into the middle of it—and do the thing that you are afraid to do.

 As I prepare to begin what I hope to be a long career in real estate (I am tired of starting new jobs every year) there are a lot of new things I am going to have to do and a lot of things I am afraid of having to do.  When I come upon one of those things I am going to remember to walk into my fear rather than run away from it.

Running away from your fear may rid you of that one fear but could potentially bring to fruition some of your other fears.  I may be afraid of some aspects of real estate but I am more afraid of being in a career with no future or earning potential that I do not like.  I might not want to work but if I don't we will go broke. (I realize it seems like we are already there but we are still in control of the choices we make with the money we have, my fear is loosing the control.)

So in the next few months I will be walking head on into all my fears.

Michael's blog also references a story of a father and son.  They were at disney about to get on a water ride when the son's fear overtakes him and initially they turn back but then he changes his mind and they go on the ride.  Part way through the son, thrilled with the experience says to the father,  "dad, I love it!  It isn't scary at all...thanks."  He goes on to talk about the fact that he is the father and his son trusts him and knows he would  never put him in danger.

I also have a Father that loves me and that I trust.  We all do.  And He will never walk us into danger.  But we still experience fear causing us to want to run from the opportunities before us.  Sometimes fear does signal danger and we are wise to heed it, but sometimes it holds us back from fulfilling the purpose God has for our lives.  Those are the times we need to just walk into it knowing we are not alone, God is right by our side.