Out of Fear

There are things in life that we want, sometimes desperately, and yet we hold on to something that holds us back from what our heart desires. Like a person who, out of fear, will not jump from a burning building and is consumed in the fire, sometimes we cling to what we know and, out of fear, miss the best that God has for us.

There is the woman who cries herself to sleep after a long day of abuse (whether it's mental, emotional or physical, the heart can't differentiate between them) and yet stays because it's what she knows. Is there a better life outside the prison that has become her life? She may never know because of her fear of the unknown.

There is the man who stays with a job he's never been happy with because of the fear of starting over somewhere else. The woman who knows there is something wrong, but will not go to the doctor out of fear of an abnormal test. The artist who is afraid to show anyone his talent for fear of rejection.

Fear plays such a huge part in our lives...fear of many things, but mostly from stepping out of one's comfort zone, even when it's not so comfortable. I've found myself holding onto things that made me unhappy and depriving myself of the joys God has for me simply out of fear of letting some things...go. Well, that and because I'm stubborn as hell. But what I've come to realize lately is that my holding onto something doesn't make it mine or even worth keeping. The tighter I try to hold on to something old, the more it keeps God from giving me something new. Yeah, I can be stubborn like that, but I'm also humble enough to know that sometimes I just get it wrong. Thankfully, He always gets it right. So, I continue to learn to let go.

The fear of letting something go is never a good enough reason to hold on to it.