Living without fear
Doing new things all the time sounds easier than it really is. I thought I would easily find new things to try, but it mainly revolves around food for me. I had some really good pasta I had never had last night. It was great. I thought about going with something that I had eaten before, but I am glad I didn’t.
I guess that is really the point of me doing new and different things: being open to new possibilities. So many times, I find that I limit myself because I am afraid of the unknown. It is so easy to hide behind what I have always done. It is safe. Trying new things is a risk. What if I do something/eat something/wear something and I don’t like it? It seems silly to think that those things would really be a risk, but we blow them out of proportion in our minds. We make it seem like that if we pick the wrong food dish at a restaurant that our evening is ruined. If we don’t pick the right outfit to wear, then we won’t feel good about ourselves. Where did we get the absurd idea that those things mattered that much?
We do this with church too. We think that if we don’t sing the songs that we like, church was ruined that day. Maybe the sermon wasn’t all we hoped it would be. Satan has sold us these lies and we have bought them. He has put the fear of failure and the fear of the unknown front and center in our lives because he knows that if he can get us to concentrate on those things, then we can’t see past them to the wonderful, open world that God has blessed us with.
I’ve got to do better at not being afraid of trying new things. The fear that is there shouldn’t control my life. God has given us freedom in Christ. That freedom is way too important to let small failures and unknowns control our decisions.
Praise be to God that we can take hold of this life and live it to the fullest!
