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Someone once said that the person who can keep his head when everyone else is losing theirs, probably doesn't appreciate the seriousness of the situation.
I was recently asked if I had the opportunity to invite three of my heroes to a dinner party, who would I invite? I thought about it for a moment and realized that one of the people I would invite would be David. I'd love to ask him what was really going through his mind that day as he ran out to face Goliath.
It's easy to imagine that David was fearless that day. That his confidence in God was so great that he never had a second thought. That his vision of Goliath lying dead on the ground was so clear and his faith so strong that the idea of failing never even entered his mind.
But it's also possible to imagine that David had to deal with the same fears that you and I would have had if we were to face a giant who wanted to kill us. That rather than being a fearless hero, he was just someone like you and me who had to silence the negative voices in his head. That he battled the same insecurities and doubts that we face, but with one significant difference, he had learned to trust God.
Have you ever held your hand out of the window of your car as it was moving down the highway at 55 or 65 miles an hour? By holding your hand in certain positions it can either float up or down on the air, or you end up fighting against the wind.
The amount that you tilt your hand is called the"angle of attack." The force of the air flowing over, under, around, and into your hand creates both lift and drag.
When you hold your hand so that your palm is facing forward and your thumb is toward the sky, the drag becomes so great that the wind pushes your hand backwards and you have to fight with all your might against the wind. You won't be able to hold your hand like that for long because it takes too much energy to fight the wind.
Even when you just hold your hand flat, the palm facing toward the ground, you feel the wind push against it and you have to struggle to keep your hand level because of the drag caused by the wind hitting the leading edge (usually the thumb) of your hand.
But when you slightly change the angle of attack, your hand will either rise or fall depending on which way you tilt it. There is still some drag against the leading edge of your hand, but the lift caused by the wind will cause your hand to float, or seem to fly, through the air.
Our emotions can be like the wind rushing around our hand when we stick it out the window of our car. Our fears act like the drag on our hands, because they always push us back. But faith works like lift in that it can pick us up and help us float, or fly, and reach higher levels of accomplishment.
When we try to take on too much at one time, it's like holding our hands out of the window with our palms facing forward. Because the angle of attack is too steep, the force of the wind, the drag of our fears, becomes too great for us to handle. Because we can't keep fighting against wind, or our fears, we give up. In life we try to just go back to what seems easiest, simply maintaining the same level in our lives and holding onto a flat and unfulfilling existence.
In order for us to let our faith take over, we need to keep a clear vision in front of us. As the vision causes us to move forward and upward in our lives, we take it step by step and day by day. By not trying to take on too much too quickly, we gradually rise the same way that our hands float on the wind when we tilt them upward.
Our emotions create both drag and lift in our lives. There will always be some drag. In other words there will always be some fear that we have to fight against. But by allowing our faith to take over, we can feel like we almost cancel out the fear. The fear is still there, but it's not controlling our lives.
During the upcoming week, take the time to get a clear picture of what it is that you want to accomplish in your life. The clearer your vision the better. In this picutre, see yourself as already having and enjoying the things you desire.
But don't look at your vision as something that you have to accomplish in one huge leap. Instead see it as a lot of little steps that you need to take one after another.
By attacking your goal bit by bit, you keep the "angle of attack" such that your faith can lift you up more than your fears can drag you down.
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