Courage is mastery of fear, not absence of fear! ….Mark Twain
But for me the most important thing about fear is that it is a daily gift of pure, free energy for those with the courage to harness it. I once saw a man in Vancouver BC, slide underneath a car that was sitting on top of an auto accident victim. He braced himself on his stomach and with the power of his legs and arms lifted the car up far enough so bystanders could slide out the injured man. Could he have done that without the stimulation of adrenaline?
As you know I’m a tireless proponent of visions and missions. I believe that the purpose of souls incarnating into minds and bodies is so we may expand in joy and wisdom. This is a task that requires us to experience and express all areas of life and that demands we work through seemingly impossible situations. As we follow this path, our fears help us be, do and have all we can in this lifetime, and in the process we grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Yet there are many well-meaning leaders who tell us we must avoid fear. A Course in Miracles calls fear the opposite of love and says fear cannot be corrected by better doing but can be corrected by higher willing. I agree that we must employ a higher willing, but in this statement fear is shown as an ill to be cured rather than a blessing to be accepted and utilized. Here then is the definitive question- If you were able to entirely remove fear from the future lifetime of an infant child… would you?
I was climbing a vertical cliff over the ocean and it turned out to be a much longer climb than I’d anticipated because I kept running into areas around which I had to reroute. By the time I neared the top, my muscles were trembling with fatigue, and then I was suddenly facing a wall of sandstone so soft my hand and footholds crumbled when I applied weight. I looked up, the top was only five feet above me while a hundred feet below me surf leapt and crashed over huge boulders. I did not have the energy to climb down and for a few harrowing seconds realized I might die here today. It took all my self-control to handle that fear, to not let it deteriorate into panic or paralysis. I knew if I had the courage to harness it, it was a force that could save me. So when my fear kicked in, I was flooded with a rage of energy. I moved upward, using a strength I simply didn't have only a moment before. I scrambled those last few feet with sandstone breaking and falling to the sea below and crawled out on top. Then I stood, still shaking, and looked down at the rocks below and gave thanks for my fear. I realized I had made some critical mistakes in laying out my route; mistakes like we all make every day; and that without fear to help me overcome them, I would not be writing this today.
I believe that marvelous book: A Course in Miracles and other reliable sources are surely right, but that it is anxiety or panic or dread they are addressing; not fear. With consideration I feel they might agree that fear itself is simply pure energy and its only purpose is to serve us.
At the top of the Triangle we are challenged: ‘Change-Dare to Grow!’ We are asked to Risk and become participants in life’s most thrilling game. When we do, our Courage expands- not temporarily but permanently!
Next week we’ll talk about the bottom leg of the Triangle which is where we expand Self-Confidence. Meanwhile, this week please get a vision, even if it is a small one and then let fear-power help you accomplish it.
To learn more about the Triangle; read Romancing The Soul, Your Personal Guide to Living Free in a first-edition hardback for only $29.95 at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Romancing-Personal-Guide-Living-hardcover/dp/0961216441/ref=sr12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264206738&sr=1-2A Bit of Humor for You
A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. In front of him the light turned yellow and he stopped even though he might have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman was furious; she had missed her chance to get through the intersection. She honked her horn and screamed in frustration as she dropped her cell phone and makeup.
While still in mid-rant she heard a tap on her window, looked up and saw a police officer.
He ordered her out of the car with her hands up; handcuffed her and took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed and put in a cell.
Two hours passed before she was finally escorted out of the cell and back to the booking desk where the arresting officer waited with her personal effects.
"I'm so very sorry for this mistake,” he said. “ You see, I pulled up behind you while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. Then I noticed the 'What Would Jesus do?' bumper sticker and the, ‘Follow Me to Sunday-School’ license holder along with the chrome Christian fish emblem. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."
Our Hero of The Week (To protect his privacy, only our hero's first name will be used here.)
Mark was a mortgage broker in Florida with a five-bedroom home, his own company and a number of employees. His daughter was in high school and his son had just graduated with a full basketball scholarship to college; Mark’s business was booming and life was good. Then his daughter was diagnosed with cancer and Mark’s insurance company denied almost all her benefits. Mark guaranteed the doctors and hospitals the bills would be paid. He used his savings until they were gone then sold his home to pay the remaining eight hundred thousand dollars of non-covered medical expenses. The financial market plummeted and Mark’s business dried up; he heard the market was still viable in the Northwest so he moved to Seattle. No sooner did he arrive than that market joined the rest of the country in its downward plunge. Mark took a small apartment and searched for work of any kind, every day. When he could no longer pay his rent he found himself living on the street.
I met Mark as we (The ARAS Foundation) were taking suppers to folks at tent city. He is a highly intelligent, healthy looking man with a powerful personality and yet, amazingly, this powerful leader is living in a tent and relying upon others for his meals. He is cold day and night and says he can never get warm.
Over the past two months several others have told me that a year ago they could never have believed they would be living on the streets. And though he lives in tent city and is constantly chilled to the bone, Mark fights everyday to get his life going again. He does not regret for a moment spending all he had to save his daughter’s life and his face lights up when he tells of her now being in college and completely cancer free. Representing millions of people all over America whose lives also collapsed because of greedy insurance and financial companies, our hero went from wealth to extreme poverty in just a few months, and as surely as the sun rises in the morning, he will get his chosen life back. Thank you, Mark, for holding this example of courage for us. You are our hero!
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