f e a r

fear is something that I have come to recognize. It disables you, causes you to make decisions out of protecting yourself and not trusting others…. Even worse, it comes from not trusting God, your Father who loves and protects you.

Everyone has a story and depending on how yours has played out, you like me, may be defaulting to fear. You feel like protecting yourself is the only way you feel safe. You ruin relationships & it takes awhile to ACTUALLY let people in. Mainly, you let them close enough to appease them and far enough away for you to stay safe. Perfect love drives out fear (1John 4:18), therefore love is the opposite of fear. Love is the only thing that can drive out the fear that has rooted in our hearts.

I have found peace over the last 6 months in love. This is not an ordinary love, or movie love.. it's perfect love. It has been sinking in since I was 15 and I still haven't wrapped my head around it's truth. Perfect love casts out fear, and the point of life is to love and be loved. Fear opposes love and it's hard to detect, but when you see a glimpse of it, fight against it. 

Elisabeth Elliot, the wife of missionary, Jim Elliot, who was killed trying to reach an unreached tribe in central america, wrote many books about daily life, deep love, and the beauty that surrounds us. One quote has really stayed with me through the last couple of months. “Faith does not eliminate questions; faith knows where to take them.” My default is to answer in fear or protection when it comes to things that affect me personally; regarding money, relationships, sometimes even ministry. Fear cripples, it takes you out of love and faith and puts you in a battlefield against those whom God has placed in your path. Pick your battles wisely, my new battle is against the fear that draws me away from joy, peace, and love.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. 

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. 

If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. 

Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. 

Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. 

But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. 

It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. 

To love is to be vulnerable.”

                                    - C.S Lewis