Fearless

Fearless by Max Lucado

Max Lucado writes an amazing book showing how living without fear is a wonderful life to live. This is a fabulous book on the power of positive thinking; something I try to use everyday to live a happier life. Throughout the book, he uses scripture, stories from the Bible, stories from present life, things that have happened in the past; stories of his or those of others, to illustrate how fear controls our actions. Within those same stories, he also shows how to overcome our fears, through prayer and positive thinking. He also shows how the love of others can overcome this monster within so that we can live happy, productive lives and keep others happy by example. He uses his humor and wit to help relay these messages.


He illustrates the snowballing effect of fear and the "what if's." For example, one might be afraid of losing their job. "What if I lose my job? My spouse will be upset, my kids will lose respect, no one will want to hire me if I try to apply somewhere else". So they become reserved and withdrawn in the workplace. They are afraid to speak to anyone for fear of saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing, so they say or do nothing at all. This leads to sadness, depression, loss of interest and eventually, quite possibly, to losing the job because of lack of performance. All because of one simple factor... fear. He shows you haw to make a list and keep track of all of your fears and then look back later to see if any of those fears ever saw the light of day. You would be astonished to know, that most fears never come to light.

As I was reading one part of the book, he told the story of a slave family who was woken up everyday to the sound of the rooster. He told of the passing of Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. The morning after it passed, that family was once again awoken by the rooster. This time though, they took an axe and killed that rooster and had it for breakfast. It was a symbol of their past life. They would deal with it no more. At the same time I was reading that, Alice in Chains' "Rooster" came on the radio. Part of the lyrics are "Here they come to snuff the rooster" Coincidence? I think not. It made me examine my "rooster" and think of ways to get rid of it.


This book really reaffirmed everything I knew and made me remember all I had forgotten about living of life of happiness and positivity. If you are looking for something to raise your spirits, this would be the book to do it. Stop living in fear.