Fear

I've been thinking a lot about courage, guts, fear, and faith lately. I was reading the book called "Spiritual Leadership" while getting a pedicure today (gasp, can you believe it, I really CAN be girly!!! My toes are a very cute pink right now, but I digress...), and there was a really good section that related to the questions and thoughts I've been having lately, so I thought I'd share:

"Leaders require courage of the highest order---always moral courage and often physical courage as well. Courage is that quality of mind which enables people to encounter danger or difficulty firmly, without fear or discouragement.

Paul admitted to knowing fear, but it never stopped him. "I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling", he reported in 1 Cor 2:3, but the verb is CAME. He did not stay home out of fear for the journey. In 2 Cor 7:5, Paul confesses that he experienced "conflicts on the outside, fears within." He did not court danger, but never let it keep him from the Master's work.

Martin Luther was amoung the most fearless men who ever lived. When he set out on his journey to Worms to face the questions and the controversies his teachings had created, he said "You can expect from me everything save fear or recantation. I shall not flee, much less recant." His friends warned of the dangers; some begged him not to go. But Luther would not hear of it. "Not go to Worms!" he said. "I shall go to Worms though there were as many devils as tiles on the roofs."

When Luther appeared there before the court of Emperor Charles V, he was shown a stack of his writings and called upon to recant. Luther replied, "Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds of reasoning, then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience." Then he likely added, "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen." A few days before his death, Luther recalled that day. "I was afraid of nothing; God can make one so desperately bold."

Not everyone is courageous by nature. Some people are more naturally timid than Luther. But whether we are bold or reticent, God calls leaders to be of good courage and not to capitulate to fear. Such a call to courage would be rather pointless if nobody feared anything. Because fear is a real part of life, God gives us the Holy Spirit, who fills us with power. But we must let that power do its work, and not fear.

Consider these two contrasting statements: "With doors locked for fear of the Jews (John 20:19) and "When they saw the courage of Peter and John" (Acts 4:13). These statements describe the same disciples, and the same opposition. What happened between the first and the second? The difference is the Holy Spirit. "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4) And when the Holy Spirit is given control of the personality he gives not "a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power" (2 Tim 1:7)

Courageous leaders face unpleasant and even devastatin situation with equanimity, then act firmly to bring good from trouble, even if their action is unpopular. Leadership always faces natureal human inertia and opposition. But courage follows through with a task until it is done."