So, here comes one more person writing a blog. Who does this guy thinks he is that he would have anything to say that anyone would want to read? There are so many blogs out there now so why would anyone read another one? Lots of people start blogs and never keep them up so I’m sure this one won’t last long either. Why me?
I know you can’t hear it but that last paragraph is the voice in my head speaking to me. Those are all things that I’ve said to myself, as well as many other things, as I have considered writing a blog for probably about a year now. So what happened to kick off this inaugural blog post of “Cultivating Courage?”
This past week has been an interesting one. In four conversations with different people the topic of me writing a blog came up three times and writing a book came up in all four conversations. Now if I hadn’t been wrestling with both of these ideas for some time I would have simply passed them off as coincidence. Now, I have never had the blessing of hearing God speak to me verbally, but I do believe that God, through his Holy Spirit, speaks to us through others. Does that mean that God spoke to me through these four different people? Possibly, but I can’t prove that but I really felt that now would be a good time to start writing this blog.
I speak on courage and fear and how they affect us all in our every day lives. It’s almost an embarrassing thing to speak on these topics and have them play themselves out in my every day life. I have a great awareness of my own fear and the need to be courageous and move into my fear rather than away from it.
As I’ve wrestled with this blog thing for the last year two occurrences really resonate with me. First, I was having coffee, I was actually having a coke as I don’t drink coffee, with a guy and discussing this very topic. This wasn’t one of the people I mentioned from this past week. He was encouraging me to start writing my blog and I said to him, “why me?” To which his response was, “why not you?” With every retort I gave him he quickly pointed out that they were all fear based and based strictly on what other people thought. I’m learning way too late in life to not be concerned with what other people think on matters like this.
Secondly, sometime in the last year I read a quote that went something like this based on my feeble recollection, “Stop thinking of all the reasons why you shouldn’t do something and focus on the one reason you should.” You’ve read some of the reasons why I shouldn’t do this at the beginning. So what’s the reason that I should write a blog? I’ve never considered myself a writer but when I do write I find it to be therapeutic. So maybe this is really selfish on my part to start down this blogging road. Over the past three years I have been amazed at how many people struggle with different irrational fears and aren’t even aware of them. As I have become more aware of my own fears and opened up with others about them it seems to have given people permission to tell me their stories. I feel very humbled to have been brought into several conversations where people have said, “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone before.”
My hope with this blog is to open up the conversation on how fear and courage affects us in our every day lives both personally and professionally. I’ll tell you some of my fear and courage stories as well as stories I find in every day life as I observe others. My goal is to blog once a week with a new post each Monday. Some weeks there may be more if I feel so compelled. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.
So, what is it that you have wanted to do someday? What are you waiting for?
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
AWESOME! Way to “Start!” It has motivated me to look at my own “reasons” for delaying my own blog. Communication is such a gift and as I’ve recently read, “If Christianity is fundamentally a communication event, then it is imperative that Christians understand how to use the Internet well.” ~ Shane Hipps. Blogging IS a communication EVENT and where we get to share our Being. Have a blast!
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment, Alex! I believe that there is so much God-given talent out there that is not being put to use because people live in fear of something. Let me encourage you to stop delaying and start writing!