Live each day with Courage

by: Greg Meyer

Raising early each day to meet what God has laid before me is both amazing and humbling.  Remembering that I don't have answers to life's questions; yet, I am called to live each day with courage.  That is what it means to embrace the crazy adventure that God has uniquely called each of us to. And by living, I don't mean life with a little "l", I mean Life with a capital "L".  

Living inside of God's promise is all that I have to do be able to embrace what he has for me.  That is not to say that there is not a process and loads of prayer, discussions and thoughts that go into understanding the "what" God wants me to embrace.  Those are topics and strategies I want to share later in the year.  What you need to understand at this point of my story is that it is filled with miles and miles of mistakes and a carnage on its trail that runs on over the next mountain.  But that is the old me talking. The one that is dead. 

It is not the new man that I am called to live like, mentioned in the Book of Romans in the Bible.  It is not the new man who is embracing the promises of Isaiah, where it was foretold that I would not grow weary, but rather be lifted up on wings like an eagle. It is not of the man who knows that no weapon formed against me will prosper (Isaiah 54:17). 

The question then is why do I keep getting stuck in a conversation with my old, dead self?  The one that tells me I will not make it, that I don't have what it takes, or that I don't have all the skills that others possess, or it has been done before so who would listen to you.  

I let the zombie out and gave it power in my life.  Yikes!

Okay, so that I don't lose all of you, do any of you have fear in life?  If it is anything other then fear of God, then we are submitting ourselves, our family and our very destiny to the god of this world.  He breathes fear...fear that will control us if we let it.  So we have to stand tall and we have to have COURAGE!

We have to recognize in that moment what is a lie and what is truth.  I have found that once I can name what that lie is, I can take the stand in life to move past it.  I can call on the promises of the Word of God and He will deliver me through the battle.

Fear grasps many of us on a daily basis (I am not exempt here at all), so what are some baby steps you can take to begin to grab hold of the reigns and live with courage? To me they look like this:

  1. Pause, take a breath and recount the day when your feelings of fear or anxiety arose. All fear has a source. Find it. You have to have a baseline to work from.

  2. Write down what you are feeling. Just let the diarrhea of thoughts come out on paper.

  3. Review what you wrote and identify what is truth and what is a lie. Most of the time, you will be able to see it in writing. Then, compare it against God's word and finally find someone to speak with who is a mentor in your life.

In most cases, this seems to help folks figure out how to get back in saddle and ride on.  I pray that it helps you as well.  

See you the trail!