I never considered myself a fearful person. I’m usually down to do the adventurous things like rock climbing to the top of a mountain or try weird foods I can’t pronounce or explore a new city on my own.
Here in Thailand there is a killer Gap Year team (a nine-month version of the world race for 18-21 year olds) with an incredibly intentional squad leader named Laura. She sat down on one of the 12 bunk beds in our hostel room the other day and said, “Guys how different would your day be if you lived with no fear of anything?” I was just walking out of the room, but the question stuck in my mind kind of like that annoying, gross gum on the bottom of your shoe.
I went on a run later and thought it out. I am a fearful person. What if the only fear I had was the fear of the Lord? What if I had no fear in rejection or sharing my thoughts or loss or failure or people in general? What if there was no fear in the way anyone would view me?
I think I would talk to a lot more people about a lot harder things. I think if someone were fearless they would dream really big and give no thoughts to how bad they might fail at getting there. I think they would be generous with energy and time and resources and insight and basically anything they could give away.
The biggest thing that stuck out to me though, is how dangerous I would be.
At training camp one of the trainers prayed that we would be a dangerous team. I thought about that when this came up. I would be a MUCH more dangerous ambassador for Jesus with no fear. I would look a lot more like Jesus because I believe he was fearless. I think I would be a better teammate and more obedient to the Lord.
I’m learning to recognize when I run away from something full of fear, because I’ve also learned that I’m a runner. I really really really like to run from things I’m scared of or intimidated by. (I’m actually pretty good at it.) However, the past few days I’ve found I share my thoughts a lot more and fight harder to know people with focusing my intentions on being fearless.
So, thanks to you Laura for challenging me to not stay in the safe zone and making me a better vessel for the Gospel!!!
Xoxo,
Alexis
