What would you do if you weren’t afraid? I think this is one of the most helpful questions I have asked myself in recent times. I have to confess an incredible lack of action because of the fear that I have. I fear what others will think. I fear what will happen if I fail. I fear wasting time and resources on something that doesn’t pan out. I fear, therefore I stay safe – doing the safe things.
Now I understand that there is such a thing as healthy fear. It is fear that keeps us from doing stupid things. It is fear that keeps us civil, and it is fear that preserves life. However, there are times when fear hinders growth; it stops us from being innovative and trying new things. And at the end of it all, safe is not compelling, there is no risk and no reward. Safe is simple, but stepping out and breaking the mold is hard. I have often heard the saying, “if it’s easy than it isn’t worth doing.” Taking the hard road, blazing new paths takes risk, it is hard work and it may not pay off.
I am being challenged by Craig Groeschel’s “IT” as he quotes Robert F. Kennedy who said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Craig goes on to share that churches, ministries and leaders that have the “it factor” about them fail and fail often, because they are always trying new things, they are living into creativity and innovation, and often failure comes before you can learn how to do it right.
We understand this principle in some areas of life, like sports and the arts. To become a great basketball player you have to be willing to endure some losses, to miss the shot, to cost the game. If you desire to be an excellent guitarist, you must first be willing to be an awful guitarist. No one picks up a guitar and starts playing with precision, without first picking away some clunkers. But, when the stakes get higher our fear entangles us.
What if instead of fearing failure, we started to look at failure as the road to success. What if instead of viewing others failures with negativity, we viewed them as one step closer to achieving something great.
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
Who Dat?
- David
- What is Pre-Futurist? The big buzz word in our world has been "postmodern" referring to as The Compact Oxford English Dictionary refers to postmodernism as "a style and concept in the arts characterized by distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions" This is usually seen as starting in the 1920's and continuing today. As a result of this postmodern era, the church has struggled to find relevance in the modern day world. Often seen as archaic at best and harmful, small minded and bigoted to others the church has been trying to come along side the postmodern person and help them view church differently. Pre-futurist, is about looking to the future and getting ahead of the curve. Instead of treading behind as the church often has, let us be more diligent in looking forward, predicting cultural change, and even initiating some change ourselves.
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