BY DR. GLENN MOLLETTE
Life can have some scary moments. We have all been there or may be there at any given time.
Sickness scares us. Dealing with a debilitating illness is scary. Cancer is scary. Heart disease is
scary. Dying is scary. We fear not having enough food, money, housing and transportation. We also fear what our children might have to face. We can all name numerous fears that most of us share in some way.
Yet, we cannot live our lives in fear. Fear immobilizes us. There is no going forward when we are stuck in fear. It is difficult to get through the day if we are shaking in fear. Fear often prevents us from moving forward in our careers, marriages or even buying anything.
When you look at the cost of buying a new house and a 30-year mortgage to pay for it, it can be scary. Having any kind of surgery can be daunting.
A certain amount of fear is healthy. The fear of crashing your car and hurting yourself or someone might prevent you from driving 90 mph. Or maybe you fear the police pulling you over. This is a healthy fear. Fear of diving into shallow water is healthy. You might break your neck, so it is better to find a safe place to dive if that is what you want to do. You do not want to blindly put your hand under a big rock. There might be something there you really do not want to find.
Certain fears are healthy and might help protect us and others from harm.
We have to live our lives with common sense and with a willingness to trust God in faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. In the parable of the talents that Jesus told, the first two servants were commended because they increased the talents entrusted to them by their master. The third servant was scolded for being afraid to invest or increase the value of his talent. His fear of failure prevented him from trying to increase its worth.
There is some risk to everything. You do not know for sure what life will bring when you marry, start a business, have a child or simply drive to the grocery store. If we do not move forward and try, we will never know.
We have all heard that it’s better to try and fail than to fail without ever trying. If you try, you will at least know. It may be a success or a life learning experience. We have a lot of those life learning experiences. Education is seldom cheap.
Today, move forward and keep this in mind: “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Often our biggest enemy is ourselves. We fret, we worry and we dread. There comes a time when we trust God and move forward.
Dr. Glenn Mollette is read in all 50 states. He is the author of numerous books and can be heard each weekday morning on XM Radio 131.