Being Fearless

Yesterday in bible study we talked briefly about being fearless.  In our delicious mixture of women we have some who have been in jail, and some who have visited there and even a few who have never been anywhere more contentious than a difficult PTA meeting.  God loves to arrange us in these interesting groups then sit back and see what we do with each other.

In this case we just love each other up one side and down the other.

Being fearless doesn’t mean we won’t make mistakes or even guarantee that we will learn and not make the same stupid mistakes again.  I think it means we will not dissolve into a puddle of paralysis and self-pity.  It means you can be brave and honest.  It means you can pick yourself up and move on. Being fearless means you can bounce back in confidence.

The last week held a lot of political stuff that guaranteed somebody would be happy while somebody else would be unhappy.  The trick is for the happy people to stop short of being obnoxious about their happiness and help the unhappy people out of their pit of paralysis of unhappiness.  Because, hopefully, we all have people we love dearly on both sides of the issues.  And if we don’t—if we don’t, people: our circle of friends is probably a little too limited, too much alike, too bland, and we might want to look for some new friends, not to replace the others but to add zest to our lives.

I have a friend who loves to debate issues.  He told me early in our friendship that he loves it when someone can change his opinion.  It makes conversation with him less combative, more like a game we play with each other.

Being fearless doesn’t always mean you enter battle and fight hard then win the battle.  It also means entering the battle, fight hard, then find out you are wrong, then admit it, and back down.  It can also mean entering the battle, fight hard, finding you have hurt someone you didn’t mean to hurt, apologize, leave the battle and move on. Being fearless can mean not being afraid to speak the truth when it is you who are wrong.

Being fearless simply means not being afraid of the truth no matter what the truth is.