I am writing a lot lately about evolution. Evolving, creating the life you want, shaking things up, reinventing yourself, shedding the old and embracing the new, fully immersing yourself in the process, allowing the flow to carry you, taking extra care to enjoy the journey…I am not running from any of it. As a matter of fact, I am full-on running toward it…and it is proving to be most difficult.

You know what drives most of our decisions? Fear. Fear and its gnarled, off-shoots of finger-like growths sprout and push into and through us, wrapping around our hearts and our minds tentacle-style and settling into place. We allow it! Rarely do we face our fear, rarely do we deliberately make efforts to feel the feels rooted in fear (envy, jealousy, resentment, doubt, inadequacy, failure), and rarely do we put in real work to free ourselves from its grip . We then make our life choices (our LIFE CHOICES!) so as to avoid fear and those feels, and with that, the tendrils of fear continue to climb and curl and propagate creating an internal environment devoid of fortitude and freedom.

Evolution, I am learning, is about courage, extraordinary courage. It is about finding the courage to be both selfish and selfless. It requires courage to exercise assured authority and simultaneous submission. It demands courage to recognize that evolving takes decisive action yet necessitates peaceful submission. It is dreadful and melancholy, poignant and heartbreaking, hopeful and thrilling, imperative and necessary all at once.

I understand that evolution is also about great faith. THAT, I know I have. If God is my co-pilot, I am in the wrong seat. He is the Captain. He plots the course, He makes the plan, He steers me in the right direction, and He keeps the journey on course. He knows the destination already and is even the curator what awaits me there. I’m not a co-pilot at all…I’m just a little, grubby, dinged-up box filled with purple glitter and promise, all taped up, complete with a shiny label indicating my intended destination. I’m back in the cargo hold sometimes shifting a little in transit but securely packed in and trusting the Master Courier to get me to the place I belong.

Fear and evolution cannot coexist. To have the most of one means giving up the most of the other. Fear and faith don’t jive either. For the Bible tells me so, all throughout, in countless verses. So here I am with courage, extraordinary courage…and faith. I cannot and will not evolve without either and both. I will wear them like armor today.

My beautiful friend said to me this morning, “When we rip off a bandaid, we say to count to 3, then we actually pull on “1”. Don’t count. Just rip.” She is wise.

I want to share my courage and faith with you today. If there is anything in your life that requires either, please be encouraged to find both and run. Put fear aside. Forge ahead. We got this.

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