more thoughts on fear and courage.

As a follow-up to this weekend's post, here are some more thoughts on fear and courage:

"Personally, if I’m going to drown, I want to drown in deep water. When taking a risk, if I’m going to go down, and I may, at least I want to be in deep water when I do it. It’s embarrassing for an adult to drown in a kiddy pool."

~ Steven Furtick, Don't drown in a kiddy pool

"I think there are moments in life when we have to make major decisions that will determine our destiny. And we will spend the rest of our lives managing those major decisions. And if you let fear dictate your decision you'll end up with a ton of inaction regrets at the end of your life. Fear is a great friend, but it makes a terrible master! Don't let fear dictate your decisions. You have to face your fears. And what you'll find is this: the thing that scares you to death is very often the thing that brings you to life.

Here's another lesson learned: few things are as liberating as what you fear actually happening. You realize that God is still there and life goes on."

~ Mark Batterson, Fearlessness

"Christians today like to play it safe. We want to put ourselves in situations where we are safe 'even if there is no God.' But if we desire to please God, , we cannot live that way. We have to do things that cost us during our life on earth but will be more than worth it in eternity."

~ Francis Chan, Crazy Love

"There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, "Yes, I've got dreams, of course..." Then they put the box away. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, "How good or bad am I?" That's where courage comes in."

~ Erma Bombeck

"Creativity actually births courage. It comes after, not before. If you wait until you feel ready, you could be stuck in your small story for a very long time. Dare to see the art in everything, take small risks with great faith. You may find the fear fade a bit, and courage just might rise up within you like two great walls of water on either side, high enough for you to get lost in a good way in the bigness of it all."

~ Emily Freeman, Chatting at the Sky, How to Live Big

"If you don’t say 'oh crap' when God reveals what He wants for your life…then you probably didn’t hear from God! We will never become who God has called us to be and do what He has called us to do if we do not face our fears.

David faced his fear and stepped out to face Goliath. Moses faced his fear of not being able to speak and went before Pharoah. Noah faced his fear of not knowing how to build a boat. People that accomplish great things for God MUST fight through their fears because reality is than God has never asked anyone to do anything that was easy (other than receiving Christ!)"

~ Perry Noble, What is Holding You Back?