Fear is a liar

Maybe you've heard the Zach Williams song Fear is a Liar.

Fear, he is a liar. He will take your breath. Stop you in your steps. Fear he is a liar. He will rob your rest. Steal your happiness. Cast your fear in the fire, 'Cause fear he is a liar.

The sad thing is, many of us never discover that truth. We never discover the rest and happiness that's waiting for us on the other side of fear, because to get there - we have to take a step toward fear - and then through it. Too often the comfort we feel avoiding our fears seems worth not taking the risk of confronting them.

My running journey has certainly helped me with that. Step by step I've knocked down fears and limitations I've placed on myself because of my size and age and everything non-runner about me.

I've come to see every step I take in running as an all out war on fear. And I'm winning.

Yesterday, I had a cup of coffee with a dear friend. Sadly, it's a friendship that got strained the last year. I strained it. I came to believe not so beautiful things about a beautiful person and I ran and hid in fear of making things right. Quite simply, I got my feelings hurt, and sometimes it's easier to sit with our hurt feelings than it is to tackle them.

Thankfully, she battled through her own fears and reached out.

You know, there we were in the Starbucks parking lot. She took a step toward me. I took a step toward her. We both took a step toward fear, and in an instant, at the same time, we both smiled. I think we both immediately recognized that fear is a liar.

Interesting enough, we spent the next hour or so talking about these trying times. How there is so much for people to be afraid of, and how there is so much fear holding people back from finding the joy in life.

Well I walked away from our conversation feeling joy. A whole lot of that joy was being reminded how much I missed my chats with my friend. And a whole lot of it was being reminded once again that fear is a liar.

2 Timothy 1:7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and self-control.

That was God singing Fear is a Liar before Zach Williams got around to it.

That doesn't mean there aren't challenging times and situations in life. That's not God saying go live recklessly. Rather, that's God saying don't let challenges paralyze you. It's simply God saying we always have the power to wisely take a step into our fears, and to always love one another through them.

That's God saying share that cup of coffee, don't hide from it.