Does Your Courage Match Your Passion?
Confront the fears that threaten to derail your creative pursuits
What would you do if you weren’t afraid? I’m sure you’ve seen that question before, and I hope you’ve pondered it.
Now ponder this: what do you fear? Answering this question will help you define and refine your answer to the first.
Recently laid off (again), I wasted no time diving back into the creative world I had little time for while working full time. I’m writing almost daily on Medium, working on my book, serving members of my Facebook group, and just launched a membership.
The logical part of myself tells me to keep looking for a new job, and unemployment compels me to apply myself to a serious job search. And yet, my heart begs me to stay where I am. To trust this process and see it through.
An author asks me, what would I do if I had no fear? That’s easy, I’d stay on this path and trust God to provide for all my needs.
But, to better answer that question, I first need to ask myself, what do I fear? You might think I’d answer that I fear not having a good-paying job, not having employer-paid health insurance, or a 401k match. But I don’t fear those things. They’re only what the world tells me I need.
What I fear now is losing myself again. I fear losing this creative flow I’ve found. It’s like floating in a warm pool on a sunny day with brilliant blue skies above me. I never want to get out.
I fear getting sucked back into someone else’s dream, another’s plans, and their profit-producing machine.
I fear I will abandon my gifts. Leave them — not buried — but worse, scattered across the floor. A project half-started, half-finished, aborted. The mess left symbolizes one woman’s abandoned faith and discarded purpose. A room I’ll never want to walk into again because of the sadness and regret that will burn with shame inside my soul.
It would be better to have left the gifts unwrapped, the talents buried, out of sight, than to have unwrapped them and started building the dream only to abandon it, again.
“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
(Luke 9:62, NIV)
These are the words of Jesus to a man who promised to follow him only after he could say goodbye to his family.
Jesus also spoke of this crucial principle when he said,
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it — lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him.
— (Luke 14:28–29, NKJV)
So that’s what I fear right now. I fear that I’ll put my hands to the plow but look back and abandon the seeds I’m planting.
I fear I’ll be mocked for leaving my foundation without a structure. That I’ll walk away from the dream before it has a chance to flourish.
Everything in me is screaming: keep going! This is the path with a heart! This is the path that leads to the land of milk and honey.
I’ve already slain the giants that stood in my way: the inner critic, the need for approval, spiritual pride, and the shield of invisibility.
What’s left to keep me from my destiny? Certainly nothing God can’t handle.
When faced with a choice, ask, “What would I do if I had no fear?” Then remember that perfect love casts out all fear and proceed down the path with a heart.
Does anyone care to join me?
Your passion is waiting for your courage to catch up.
— Isabelle Laflèche