The hike started out great, we literally walked down 500 steps. Then the scary part came. We had to cross over these HUGE boulders with water below us. Now the water wasn’t moving any faster than say the way water would come out of a garden hose but for some reason I became completely paralyzed and my hands and legs were shaking.
I wouldn’t take that first step of faith even though my sisters were lovingly encouraging me along. Eventually, after a lot of convincing, I took the first step . . .
Sometimes I feel unworthy and think, “Who am I to witness after all the times I have sinned and betrayed God?” When these thoughts come, the shame cripples me in fear. It’s very subtle and creeps in most of the time without me even realizing it. The effects of sin – shame, isolation, and fear paralyze us and keep us from moving forward towards God. That’s just what the devil wants. If we don’t feel worthy, good enough, or knowledgeable enough, then we won’t spread the gospel: we’ll turn in on
At the beginning of January, the missionaries here at Covecrest did an eight-day retreat. Not just any eight-day retreat, but an eight-day silent retreat. We’ve known about the retreat since the beginning of the year in September, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that the day before our two-week Christmas break, we began praying and talking about it as a community. The retreat is a combination of meditations taken from St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, personal spiritual direction, and nightly conferences
Let’s face it, I am a big pansy. I am afraid of everything. I don’t like rollercoasters, I don’t like scary movies, and my biggest fear is skunks. Of all things! I’m a big chicken. So reading Scripture today I was struck by Psalm 27 where it said, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?” Being such a baby, how was I not too scared when God led me to be a missionary? Well, the truth is, I WAS pretty scared. I had
