If I am completely transparent, I want to be courageous and create dope stuff but there is one thing that stops me from going the last 10%, and it is fear! Fear sucks. I hate the idea that this emotion is strong enough to keep us from all God has planned and designed for you and me. We let it win far too often.
The most significant truth you can believe about yourself is that God Is cheering for you and He wants you to be courageous!
Honestly, I carry some baggage when it comes to the whole “God spoke to me” thing. It’s not that I don’t’ believe it happens, but the truth is I probably don’t think it occurs to me. That was until a warm summers night at a staff retreat. Our pastor stood up and said he had written us each a note and as he wrote these letters he was praying about what God would want to tell us. When I opened the note, it was shocking to me how personal the message was and how direct it spoke to me. Included in the letter was a scripture verse.
Joshua 1:9 says: “I command you, be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid; do not be discouraged, for I am with you wherever you go.”
I believe that God wants for you the same thing He wants for me, and that is for us to be strong, to be courageous, and not to be afraid. Not only does God want this for us, if we believe this verse to be right He commands us to be courageous and not to be scared. Every day I wake up and wonder if the whispers in my mind are real. If the voices that I hear are right, and I question if this is all going to work, if my ideas are good enough or if the art we create is strong enough to make a difference. And as a side note, those whispers are whispers because they are lies. Lies have to whisper because they are not true. The truth can be spoken loudly and with confidence.
I love this quote from Nelson Mandela:
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
Are you ready to be a brave man/women? No matter who you are the truth is we all could use a little more courage. Wherever we are in life and whatever we are facing, a touch more courage could go a long way in making our God-given dreams turn into realities. Not just for us but also for those who will experience life change because we were brave enough to chase, live, and create those dreams.
I think we want to be courageous, right? Like no one wakes up and says: “Today, I am going to be a coward. Playing it safe is why I have fought my entire life to be an artist”. But do we live like that?
So today I am committing. I am committing to accept that God’s words in Joshua 1:9 are written not just for me but also for all of us who create. I am committing to face fear and conquer it so that I can live the life God intended. I am determining to embrace strength and courage, to choose faith over fear and to trust and rest in the fact that God is with me wherever I go. I am committing to believing that if He is with me, everything is going to be ok.
Are you willing to join me in making this commitment? Are you with me? Because fear might be intense enough to beat one of us, but there is no way it can overcome all of us if we stay together!
Be brave!
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