This week’s reading hit close to home: “Feeling the Fear.” The stories keep showing us that the great figures were afraid too. Jacob was terrified before meeting Esau, even though he had already received a blessing and would eventually become Israel. Moses made every excuse he could at the burning bush. Jonah booked a ship to Tarshish to avoid delivering his message to Nineveh. They weren’t fearless. They were afraid. But they moved anyway.
Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s acting despite it. We get nudged forward, even when we don’t yet have faith in ourselves. That idea stayed with me.
As I step into my sabbatical, I’m sitting in that in-between space where I don’t quite know what’s next, but I can feel that something is shifting. The fear of the unknown doesn’t feel like weakness. It feels like a signal. This Lift & Learn community has been helpful in pushing me to keep moving, physically and spiritually, because that’s what this moment seems to be asking for.