Fear can be a slippery slope. If
we allow ourselves to believe in one lie, or give in to one fear, it can be
easier to give in to another, and then another.
If we're not careful, fear becomes all we know. We no longer know what it's like not to live
in fear, and we aren't really sure how to live without it. It becomes our security blanket. We even
become afraid of leaving that fear behind and moving on to a life free from
fear.
The problem with this kind of fear - fear of the unknown, fear of
growing, fear of greatness, fear of God's plan, fear of holiness, fear of
failure, etc. - is that it holds us back.
Our deepest desires, our hopes, dreams, and aspirations often become
unrealized because we are afraid we can't do it, or we're afraid of where it
will take us (out of our comfort zone).
We look to the lives of the saints and often believe that that could
never be us. But it can be us if we
radically let go of every fear and anxiety and cast ourselves completely on
God. That means letting go of attachment
to sin, letting go of past and present hurt and shame. God's mercy always looks ahead at your next
chance. It does not dwell on the
past. It's time we all permanently lay
down our burdens of sin and shame so that we can run to the Cross and follow Jesus
without any fear or any trace of guilt holding us back. St. Paul says "For freedom Christ has
set us free; stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to yoke of
slavery" (Galatians 5:1).
Oftentimes, the burdens we bear are ones WE chose to pick up. But Christ's sacrifice on the Cross was to
free us from those burdens. "For
FREEDOM Christ has set us free."
For FREEDOM. Not for more shame
and more burdens that we place on ourselves, but FREEDOM. That is what God wants for us.
Let us all pray that we will be able to lay our burdens down, get out
of our own way and move forward. Just
like the camel in the Gospels that cannot pass through the city gate, the eye
of the needle, with all its burdens, we cannot move forward and fulfill our
full potential while holding on to fear and doubt. Christ came and removed all of our
burdens. Let's pray that we don't pick
them up again.
"Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about
your unfulfilled potential. Concern
yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still
possible for you to do." -St. John XXIII
Written by Catherine
