Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 648 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Imagine Your Life Without Fear

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 648 of our trek, and it is time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.

For the next several weeks, we will focus how to live with less fear. We will explore the trails on our trek of life, which will help us to be fearless. This does not imply that we will reach the point where were are completely without any fear, though, for that is not only impossible, but also not wise. There is a time and a place for an appropriate level of fear, but most fear that we experience on a daily basis has no grounding and can be eliminated as we grow in wisdom, insight, and understanding. So our objective for these next several Fridays is to experience a FearLess Friday on our trek of life. Today is our first trail on our trek covering Imagine Your Life without Fear.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Hazel went back to Columbus Children’s Hospital on Friday, and her blood counts were back up into the range where they can continue her chemo regimen. During this phase, she will receive treatments in Columbus every 10 days. Nat and Elizabeth do not have to administer any medicines at home, and Hazel seems to be feeling pretty good. So we are thankful for that.

As mentioned on Wednesday’s trek, on July 8^th, I suffered a fall from a ladder that fractured my upper femur bone. I am focusing the next few Tuesday and Thursday “Wisdom-Nugget” episodes sharing my story of the accident and recovery. The story begins with Day 645.

A major life event such as this strikes fear into our hearts of how our lives will change or how it could have been even worse. Starting with this Friday’s episode on our Fearless Friday treks, we will explore why we are fearful and how we can live a fearless life or at least a life with less fear. The focus of our trek today is…

Imagine Your Life Without Fear

By nature, I am not a fearful person. I am usually confident and will boldly go where others may not. As I age, I realize that it is not so much the lack of fear, but the willingness to overcome that fear to achieve my goals and better utilize my God-given abilities that drives me. I try to focus on what can be accomplished by moving forward, rather than the scary “what-ifs.”

My recent accident is helping me to realize that while I desire to live a life without fear, I also need to weigh all of the potential outcomes, not only for myself, but also for those that love me. I am certainly not ready to end my living legacy. I am very aware of how much worse my accident could have been. Instead of fracturing my femur, I could have landed on my head or back, or the chain saw could have hit me or those that were helping me, all of which could have ended my life or the lives of others.

There is a twinge of fear when I think of those potential outcomes, mostly because I would no longer be here on earth to positively impact those that I love most. I cannot and will not allow this accident to prevent me from moving forward. As part of living a life without fear, I will be more prudent with the confident choices that I make and consider the outcomes from a much broader perspective.

It is my hope and prayer during these next several Fearless Friday Treks that together we can learn to move boldly forward, regardless of the obstacles that we may face. Together we can certainly learn from those fearful situations and then wisely make the choices needed to live a life with less fear.

My ride in the ambulance and a dangerously low heart rate during surgery are not the only situations that require courage to continue on. You may be down to your last paycheck without seeing a solution, and you feel that your faith could fit into a thimble. For some, each sunrise seems to bring fresh reasons to be fearful.

There are always talks of layoffs. The economy is in constant flux. There are always stories of terrorism around the world or even a local crazy person who is bent on death and destruction over some seemingly minor situation. Maybe they are just fearful also and have chosen to take it out on others.

I rarely watch or listen to the news outlets because they spew out enough hand-wringing information to make us want to find an underground doomsday bunker to live in. I just don’t need or want my mind to be polluted with such fear-mongering.

We fear being sued, finishing last, or going broke. We fear the mole on our back, the new neighbors, and the sound of the clock as it ticks us closer to the grave. We create sophisticated investment plans to secure our financial foundation. We install elaborate security systems to protect us and all the stuff we accumulate. We legislate a stronger military to protect our country while leaving those most vulnerable to defend themselves. Despite all of this security, we depend on more mood-altering drugs than any generation in history.

Fear, it seems, has taken a hundred-year lease on the home next to us, and moved in permanently. This neighbor is oversized and rude and causing us much concern. They refuse to share and start to control our mind and rob us of our happiness.

Do you ever see the two together? Can you be happy and fearful at the same time? Clear thinking and fearful? Confident and fearful? Merciful and fearful? No!  Fear is the big bully from your high school hallway – brash, loud, and unproductive. For all the noise fear makes and the room that it takes up, fear does little good.

Fear never wrote a beautiful poem or song. Fear never negotiated a peace treaty. Fear never cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty, or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or business. Courage mixed with faith can conquer fear and can resolve all of these problems. It is those individuals that refused to take advice from the bully fear that can accomplish all good things. Fear herds us into the prisons of our lives, slams the door shut and throws away the key.

Wouldn’t it be great to be freed from the prison walls of fear?

Imagine your life wholly untouched by anxiety and fear. What if faith, not fear was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, and doubt, what would remain? As we take this trek together over the next several fearless Fridays, envision a day, just one day, absent of the dread of failure, rejection, and calamity. That is where we are heading over the next few weeks.

For today, grab hold of this promise from Jesus who told us in 16:33&version=NLT">John 16:33, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

Next Friday we will explore fear and ask the question, “Why are we afraid?” I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life. Our next trek is Mindshift Monday where we will help you live differently by thinking differently. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe through iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Monday!