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.