Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Fear. Keeps us safe or keeps us boring?



This is a great passage I found and wanted to share with you. It's from Donald Miller's book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years:

The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is "Do not fear." It's in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn't let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I thought of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconscious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves that purpose. But fear isn't only a guide to keep us safe; it's also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.

So what did Donald Miller do to prevent a boring life from fear? He hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (an "excruciatingly" difficult trail even for seasoned veterans) despite being overweight and a novice at hiking. But he did it, and he lived to tell the tale.

I know fear has stopped me from doing a lot of things. But sometimes, I say "heck" to fear and do it anyway. My biggest fear hurdle was becoming a mom. And although it's still many years before I reach the summit and let my little girl go, it has been a wonderful journey thus far.

2 comments:

Scharlene said...

Hi Ali,
I found this blog by accident. Gosh this is me all over again. I have been living with MVPS for over 20 years. I am now 53. My main symptom is the palpitations. I own every book there is to have about MVP.. I went several years without symptoms. Then I quit smoking 2 and 1/2 years ago. That was my stress relief. There have been very few days the last 2 years that I have not had palps. Some days are better than other. I enjoy this blog so much. Are you on Facebook?
Take care,
Scharlene

Ali said...

So glad you stumbled across my site. Congrats on quitting smoking but I'm sorry to hear that your palps have returned. Do you have an alternative stress relief now that you quit? I believe to an extent that palps have a mind of their own but I know that I contribute a lot to their presence when I'm not taking care of myself and winding myself up with stress and worry. I hope you'll check out my blog from time to time. Thanks for commenting.