Fearless

God calls each and every one of us to go beyond our fears and trust in him so that he can show us his boundless, powerful, beautiful love for us.

By Lauren Heaton
2 July 2017

I like to think I am brave, and from time to time, I am brave, but there is still one thing I don’t plan on doing to prove my braveness: skydiving. There is something about jumping to my potential death that does not appeal to me. However, I do enjoy hearing about others’ experiences of skydiving because once they successfully land they have an intriguing boost of self-confidence and adrenaline inspired sense of invincibility. Actor Will Smith recently shared his experience of skydiving and what he had to say was quite inspiring

“You realize at the point of maximum danger is minimum fear.” He goes on to say, “The best things in life are on the other side of terror. On the other side of your maximum fear are all of the best things in life.” While he admitted fear consumed him leading up to the jump, Smith described skydiving itself as pure bliss.

I think falling in love is very similar to what Smith described. Real, pure love is something we all desire, but are perhaps afraid of as well. We put up walls and we push others away because we fear they could never love us if they really knew who we are. Opposite of this, we sometimes are afraid of giving the love we so desire to receive.

Falling in love with God and doing his will follows a similar pattern in our broken human nature. We push him away believing that he could never love the brokenness in us. But on the other side of fearing God’s love is the best thing this life has to offer us: God’s perfect love which casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).

People like St. Pope John Paul II and St. Mother Teresa are two human examples of people who lived in God’s perfect love while still on earth, and they lived fearlessly. They followed God’s call for them to jump outside of their comfort zones and do what the world says is impossible: to love others fearlessly.

I’ve been told that professional skydivers sort of push their inexperienced skydiving passengers out of the plane so they do not have time to give into their fears. Perhaps we need people like that in our life, people to push us beyond our fears when Christ is calling us to be fearless. Better yet, allow God to be your skydiving buddy. Trust in his love, pray to be fearless for Christ.

God calls each and every one of us to go beyond our fears and trust in him so that he can show us his boundless, powerful, beautiful love for us. He has great plans for us if only we take the leap with him. What is God currently calling you to that you are refusing to do out of fear? Is there someone in your life who you know is called to something greater and just needs a push to get to the other side of their fear?

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Photo Credit: Lauren Heaton. All rights reserved. Used with permission.