May 9 - Walking Through Fear

Fear doesn't shrink when you avoid it. This episode is about what happens when you stop coasting and actually paddle — and why you probably can't do it without God. Fear often tightens its grip when I try to avoid it. Growth begins when I become willing to face what I have been resisting. Pastor Mike opens up straight out of the gate: he's got a real fear in his life right now, something around the healing still needed in his family, and his default has been to keep the water smooth. Don't paddle too hard. Don't make waves. But as he puts it — if you're in a canoe on a lake and you're not paddling, you're not going anywhere. You're just sitting dead in the water. Corey meets him there with the seventh step prayer from page 76 — "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad" — because when he's going through something, that's where he starts. On his knees. His sponsor's instruction: get on your knees in the bathroom, put your head over the dirty toilet, and pray before you go speak. And every time Corey said anything afterward about how the talk went, his sponsor asked one question: did you get on your knees? Page 68 follows: "We think fear ought to be classed with stealing." Corey turns it over — how much time, how many things, how much life has fear taken? Then page 67: "We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be." What would He have me be? Love. And sometimes love is just going in and taking care of business, even when the outcome is out of your hands. Mike lands in Psalm 94:19 — "In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul" — and Romans 8:28, that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. And it comes back to where Ripple Two ends: often, as you step forward in your own fear, you find someone else who needed to see it done. Find every daily entry at dailyripples.com. Reach out anytime at [email protected]. Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.