You Can Do Hard ThingsSample

Here Be Dragons

An interesting map is on display in the British Museum in London. It’s an old mariner’s chart, drawn in 1525, outlining the North American coastline and adjacent waters. The cartographer made intriguing notations on areas of the map that represented regions not yet explored. He wrote, “Here be giants,” “Here be fiery scorpions,” and “Here be dragons.” Fortunately, explorers ignored his warnings—and discovered whole new continents as a result!

The cartographer’s notes did not reflect truth—they reflected fear. In our own lives, it’s not actual giants, scorpions, and dragons that keep us from doing hard things. It’s the fear of them. Once we take that scary first step with God’s help—and keep going forward—we’ll experience the bigger, more fulfilling life God has in mind for us.

Fear is the fence that keeps us stuck in our comfort zones. To be fair, we usually feel fear for a reason: often something is outside that should make us afraid. The problem is when we just sit there.

We wait.

And we wait.

Why? We’re waiting to stop feeling afraid before we attempt anything. We’re often afraid to try something new because of painful past experiences. We tried stepping out before, and it blew up in our faces. We poured everything we had into something we cared about, and our efforts fell short. We don’t want to embarrass ourselves again.

The truth, though, is that if we’re waiting until the fear and feelings of inadequacy go away, we’ll never venture outside our comfort zones. Until we take a step in spite of our fears, none of us will ever truly be able to do hard things. If we want to continue to grow and learn for the rest of our lives, we must beat these fears—not by making them go away, but by recognizing that there is something worse than discomfort, worse than the unknown, worse than failure. The worst thing is to never try at all.

God is ready to work through us, even with our limitations. Instead of worrying about future fears, we can, as Corrie ten Boom wrote, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

How could your life be different if you chose to do hard things by stepping outside your comfort zone?