FEAR'S EDGES

FEAR’S EDGES

 We find ourselves nearly at the end of 2020…and what a year this has been!  Time really does fly, or so it seems.  In our days of varsity football, the late Coach Joe Gladys would give us Greyhounds challenging pep talks before we took the field to commence our gridiron competitions.  While his talks were always different, they contained a common theme.  ‘What will we do to make sure we are operating at peak performance?’

 As we embrace life for the balance of this challenging year, it is imperative that we approach each day and every task with courage and consistency.  We must refuse to live in the shadow of FEAR, which is the highly adept and lethal assassin of dreams and potential.  Consider this true tale from nature:

 Philip Island, in Victoria Australia, plays host to one of the greatest nature experiences possible.  On the shores of Philip Island are the burrows of thousands upon thousands of fairy penguins, extraordinarily cute tiny birds that stand only 30 centimeters or so tall.  Every morning the adult penguins head out to sea to catch fish.  At the end of the day, they return to land to bring back food for their chicks.  Watching them moving from the water to their burrows is both funny and fascinating.  The penguins surf in on the waves, then gather in groups at the water’s edge.  Their burrows are 100 meters or so distant, with the open space of the sandy beach standing between them and home.

 All of a sudden a group of penguins will take off, waddling as fast as their little legs can carry them across the beach.  But then, having traveled only 10 or 15 meters, they suddenly turn around and waddle back toward the water.  They wait, then try again.  One group finally makes it, but another performs this strange ritual of turning back.  And on it goes until eventually all the penguins have crossed the beach and met up with chicks in the burrows.

 What’s really going on here?  Why this strange stop-start-and-return ritual?  The answer is quite simple.  At sea, the birds are fast swimmers and able to dive deep.  So at sea, they are safe from predators such as eagles and hawks.  In their burrows, they are safe because they are below ground.  However, out on the open beach, they are quite vulnerable, completely exposed.  On the beach, they can only waddle slowly and thus become easy pickings for predators.  And so, as they cross over the beach sands, the moment they see a shadow or anything out of the corner of their eyes, they turn back and race for the safety of the water.

 It seems that we humans are a lot like those fairy penguins.  When confronted with challenging situations, we find ourselves standing uncertainly at the water’s edge.  We know where we’ve got to go.  We know we’ve got to cross the beach and head back toward our home burrow, but it all seems so daunting, so terrifying.  You see, whenever we step out of the water and start waddling across the beach, we leave our safety and comfort zone behind.  There we find ourselves in ‘no-man’s land’ where it feels uncertain, dangerous and downright disconcerting.  However, in order to get home we must leave our safety zone and strike out into THE FAITH ZONE where we will encounter both risk and reward.

My friend, it’s called LIFE.  Here’s your question for the remainder of 2020: Are you up to the challenge of abandoning anxiety and fear to experience the power and embrace the potential of what lies ahead?  My friend, live with both courage and conviction.  No fears.  Only faith.

 Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET YOUR SOON COMING KING.  Maranatha!