Fears & Why You Want to Chase Them
The fear-filled cannot love deeply. Love is risky. The fear-filled cannot dream wildly. What if their dreams sputter and fall from the sky? -Max Lucado, Fearless
What if our dreams “sputter and fall from the sky”?
What if we are rejected or disappointed by the person we love?
Yep. Those things would suck. Should the post just end there? We already agree that fear chasing is risky, and one consequence might lead us to feeling sucky, but what else?
Here is my guess on a couple of things:
The number one cause of living a life of mediocrity?
Fear.
The biggest reason we keep love at an arm’s length away from ourselves?
Fear.
The oldest excuse in the book for not pursuing your dreams/passions/purpose?
Yep, you guessed it, fear.
Fear robs us of everything Life is meant to be. That’s why, despite the risk, we need to chase ‘em.
Now, I’m not talking about the fear that keeps our seatbelts buckled, or the fear that keeps us from walking blind folded on the edge of a the Grand Canyon. Some fears we want to keep in tact. We can skip this part. We know this already: survival is important to us.
The fears I’m talking about are the fears that have overtaken the modern world– fears that have nothing to do with survival and everything to do with keeping us restrained…from hope, from possibility, from playing that bigger game we dream about. These are the fears we want to dismantle.
An Irresistible Life is an attainable one, but you play into fear and suddenly it become a glass menagerie- something you only long for to be real.
We have an inkling that life was meant to be more than it is, but we are scared to death to find out if we are right.
This is why we chase our fears. Because our deepest intuition is cheering us on to do just that.
To dismantle our fears we got to do three things:
1. Identify them 2. Call them out for what they are– liars, stealers, no-good theifs. 3. Race towards them
Fear Not
One of my favorite pastor’s at church, Helen Musik, often encourages us to “cop an attitude with fear.” Who does Fear think it is coming in and laying down the limits of our life? A little bit of “I’ll show him!” is mighty healthy.
(Helen also reminds us that the number one command in the bible is”Fear Not”. The phrase occurs 356 times– one for every day of the calendar year. Convenient coincidence, no? 
We got to get close enough to our fears to round-house kick them the face– or, if your not the ruffling feathers type–we got to get close enough to our fears to take them sternly by the hand and convincingly show them the exit.
During Sunday sermons I’m acutely aware that we have a spiritual barometer inside of us and if it isn’t being challenged- if we are, in fact, too comfortable- we are probably not on the right path. A level of discomfort and fear is necessary for spiritual growth. To know God–I mean, come one, that is one seemingly, crazy, impossible goal– we got to be willing to chase fears and go the places that are hard for us to go.
I believe the same goes for all our ambitious pursuits– love, business, family, health. If we aren’t feeling the tinge of fear arise– we can be pretty certain we are in a rut, or on a stale-ish path. When we do feel the butterflies, we got to be ready to press in. If in our heart of hearts we know we need to pursue something–even if we don’t know the how yet–we got to trust ourselves and begin the pursuit of it. The fear you feel is a sign you are exactly where you need to be. Chase the tale of that lion and when you get close enough to grab it, do.
To go in the direction of your dreams you must also go in the direction of your fears.
Where is fear tempting you to chase it?
Are you afraid of public speaking, but know deep down you were meant to share your message with a wider audience? Do you think this fear of speaking might just be a red light flashing yes, yes, here is where you want to be ?
Are you falling in love but holding back because the question “what if it won’t last?” is too frightening to face? How might this fear be showing you the next level of where your heart is meant to go?
Tell me the fears you know you should be chasing; Tell me which ones you aren’t quite sure of yet.
Are you convinced there are certain fears in your life you need to dismantle on the way to your dreams? Or do you believe you need to make a 180 on the path when fears pop up? I want to hear from you either way.
