"oversize and rude, fear is unwilling to share the heart with happiness. happiness complies and leaves. do you ever see the two together? can one be happy and afraid at the same time? clear thinking and afraid? confident and afraid? merciful and afraid? no. fear is the big bully in the high school hallway: brash, loud, and unproductive. for all the noise fear makes and room it takes, fear does little good."

"what if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats?"

"getting on board with Christ can mean getting soaked with Christ."

"it's not the absence of storms that sets up apart. it's whom we discover in the storm: and unstirred Christ."

"fear corrodes our confidence in God's goodness."

"the fear-filled cannot love deeply. love is risky . . . the fear filled cannot dream wildly."

just started a book, "fearless" by max lucado. wouldn't have picked it up on my own, and i'm not impressed by the writing, but definitely encouraged by the topic. i've certainly lived a lot of my life in fear. still do. really feel like it's the root of most of the sin in my life. the point of the book is to realize Christ's promise in His statement, "why are you afraid?" the promise that we can leave tomorrow less afraid than today. fear itself isn't a sin, but can lead to sin.

more to come. i've been thinking more than writing the past couple of days. usually not the best.