The weak ones fall, the Strong carry on

Picture: My college days desk. Writing some research paper for a Comm class, no doubt. Reading that much about communication, you'd think I would never have an argument or misunderstanding with another human being. Sadly...that's wrong.

This post, I'll go ahead and say, is mostly devoted to Fearless quotes. I just finished an excellent chapter, and from past experience, the best way for me to log things I'd like to remember...is in blog form. Not super entertaining I admit, but for future Heidi's benefit, I'm doing it.

I officially have Dan's V-Day card made. (I went $2 over budget on the gift, so we're going homemade this year.) I found out my pres-pres won't be arriving until the 18th :( Oh well. More anticipation! Sunday morning will being chocolate chip pancakes and possibly Charles Stanley! (If I get up on time. 7:00 is earlier than you'd think on a leisurely Sunday morning. Calm yourself. We're Catholic and go to church on Saturday night.)

It's a blustery day, my hair is uncurled and we're having potato soup for supper and there's good t.v. on tonight! I love this time of the week - I'm still excited about Good Parking Thursday at work and excitedly anticipating good t.v. night and Casual Friday.

For lack of anything better coming to mind, I'm going to give up complaining for Lent. Now don't get me wrong - I don't mean the occasional "it's cold in here" or "I'm hungry." I'm talking about complaining as a means to gossip and not be thankful for what I have. It WILL be a challenge. But Lent is a time of sacrifice and struggle and repentance. I love it. One of my favorite things about being Catholic is how big of a deal Lent and Easter are. (In the Protestant church, where I spent the first 24 years of my life, it seems like much more of an emphasis is put on Christmas celebration than Lent and Easter.)

Okay, I had more non-Fearless to say than I thought I did. Now for my favorite quotes from this chapter:

"The step between prudence and paranoia is short and steep. Prudence wears a seatbelt. Paranoia avoids card. Prudence washes with soap. Paranoia avoids human contact. Prudence saves for old age. Paranoia hoards even trash. Prudence prepares and plans. Paranoia panics. Prudence calculates risk and takes the plunge. Paranoia never enters the water." (That's a big one for me...)

"For fear of the worst [you] never enjoy life at its best."

"[Gethsemane staged the profoundest fear. It was here, amidst the olive trees, that Jesus fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. 'Abba, Father,' he cried out, 'everything is possible for you.' Fight your fears in Gethsemane's garden."

"Jesus never felt God's fury, didn't deserve to. He'd never experienced isolation from his Father; the two had been one for eternity. He'd never known physical death; he was an immortal being. Yet within a few short hours, Jesus would face them all. God would unleash his sin-hating wrath on the sin-covered Son. And Jesus was afraid. Deathly afraid." (As I was reading that line I almost started crying for Jesus. Can you imagine? Experiencing God's sin-hating wrath? And can you imagine how much God loves us...to release that wrath on His only Son whom He loved? God didn't want to do it, Jesus didn't want to experience it, but both did because "God SO loved the world...")

"Like vampires, fears can't stand the sunlight. Financial fears, relationship fears, professional fears, safety fears - call them out in prayer. Drag them out by the hand of your mind, and make them stand before God and take their comeuppance!"

"We know everything is going to turn out all right. Christ hasn't budged from his throne, and Romans 8:28 hasn't evaporated from the Bible. Our problems have always been his possibilities. The kidnapping of Joseph resulted in the preservation of his family. The persecution of Daniel led to a cabinet position. Christ entered the world by a surprise pregnancy and redeemed it through his unjust murder. Dare we believe what the Bible teaches? That no disaster is ultimately fatal?"

"What can I fear? Will it be death? But you know that Christ is my life, and that I shall gain by death. Will it be exile? But the earth and all its fullness is the Lord's. Will it be loss of wealth? But we have brought nothing into the world, and can carry nothing out. Thus all the terrors of the world are contemptible in my eyes; and I smile at all its good things. Poverty I do not fear; riches I do not sigh for. Death I do not shrink from." -Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople