Everyone has had a point in their life when they were scared. Some, like me, have had several. And for those of you who just scoffed and said, “Well, not me!” I would just like to say that you are just too afraid to admit it. These times may have been due to a traumatic experience or its subsequent scarring; others may have been simply because we were on the brink of something new.

As people, we have a tendency to like what we are already familiar with, such as a job, residence, school, friends, habits, etc. And that can be okay for the most part, except when we keep a part of our lives solely to preserve a routine, even when it is destructive. Have you and/or someone you know ever continued to rent an apartment when the landlord never fixed anything (and things broke often), the neighbors were unbearable, and the rent was too high? Why? Wouldn’t it make sense to move out? Any person on the outside looking in could see that, but year after year, the lease gets renewed anyway. Some may say it is laziness, but I think it’s fear that keeps us in those types of situations. We become afraid that our next home will be worse, we won’t be able to find another one, impotant mail won’t get forwarded, the truck rental will be too expensive, etc. So we continue to live in compromise.

As a person on the brink of college graduation, the thought of life without school is kind of scary. It makes me nervous to know that I’ll actually have to get out there and do what I’ve been talking and learning about all this time. I know people who go “back to school” several times over for higher degrees or several lower degrees simply to avoid looking for a “real” job or to sidestep repayment of their student loans. It sounds silly, but it happens every day. Too often we miss the goal for the sake of avoiding the transition. But I can stand strong because, even though I have never known life without school since I was four years old, God does. I am not confident because I know what it will be like; I am confident because I know that someone who does will be with me. And pretty soon, I’ll be just as comfortable in my career as I was with school- and a whole lot more fulfilled because of it.

So I encourage you to be confident it all that you do; be bold with purpose. We need to remind ourselves daily to rely condfidently on God and His faithfulness. When things are changing around us, He is the same within us. There is a time to learn, but don’t waste your life away talking about things instead of doing them. Have you ever tried to learn to play a board game and the rule book made no sense until you actually got out the pieces and tried to start playing? I think life works the same way. Get the general idea, and then get out there! If a picture is worth a thousand words, experience is worth a million. How many times have you said or heard, “You just had to be there”? Well, then go! And go knowing that God will bless you when you are obedient. Confiedence through Christ casts out all fear.