Be Fearless!

Don't you hate it when you are completely mad at yourself? You do something that would cause you to call out your friend, if they did the same thing, and you realize you are not practicing what you preach. My friend wrote me the sweetest note at the beginning of the week, about how she loved how I always tell people to "be fearless." Mostly, it's because I totally adore Taylor Swift, but I also absolutely love the title she chose for her second album. It means so much to me.  When I think of being fearless, I think of having so much confidence, not caring what other people think, and doing what you want with no regrets.  Basically, this summarizes how I want to live out my life each day. 
 In some aspects, I'll admit, I'm completely fearless.  I'll go on a roller coaster, travel to Africa, talk to strangers, run half marathons, kill bugs (ahem, taylor schmidt), do things people never expect I can do, and dream of nearly impossible things.  Things like that just don't scare me.  But after reading my friend's note, I've realized how often I am completely paralyzed with fear, and how lame it is for me to try so hard to push others outside of their comfort zones.  The things that scare me might seem little, but I realized this week just how much I hate being un-fearless when they come around. 
Additionally, God knows my fears and he knows how to comfort me in my struggles.  Yesterday He showed me the most perfect quote for my week, on a friend's blog:

"Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.

On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing."

-David Foster Wallace

And for everyone who loves Glee, I literally have been playing this song non-stop for the past week, and it goes along with my little theme:

Aaaaand finally, to wrap things up, here's what David, Paul, King Lemuel (thanks Google), and Taylor Swift have to say on the topic:

Psalm 56:3-4

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Proverbs 31:30

Charm can mislead and beauty still fades, but the woman to be admired is a woman who fears the Lord.

"To me, fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. " -Taylor Swift

(and yes, I draw this on my wrist almsot everyday, it's whatever. I'm not weird!)

love,

p.b.