Image by eigirdaz via Flickr“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
My devotion last week referred to this quote saying often our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasures. So if we are brave enough to comfort our uncertainties, the dragons in our lives, we can discover what is most precious within us.
So often when we face our fears, they evaporate or become helpless as Rilke says. That core deep inside us, though something we all want to discover, to know, and to understand, is also a place a tender vulnerability. After all, it is our essence, our soul stamped with God’s fingerprint.
We don’t normally face our fears willingly, do we? God is the One who woos us into the desert valley. I know that the true growth doesn’t occur on the mountaintops, but in the valley, but it sure is frightening to try something new, to take that risk or face that dragon.
Will I fail? Will others laugh at me? Will I lose what I hold dear? Will it hurt? What will it cost me?
Courage doesn’t mean we are not afraid. Being brave means doing what you need to do even though it scares you.
Even though our dragons lurk in dark and hidden places, maybe they are just “princesses…helpless that want our love.”
All this pondering about my fears in terms of helpless, lonely dragons reminded me of the G K Chesterton quote:
“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
After all as Hans Christian Andersen wrote: “Every person’s life is a fairytale written by God’s fingers.”
And with God as my author, I know He will help me face my dragons.
What do you think?
wow.
totally bulked when I first started reading this…
but it settled in as I read more of your post.
I need to think more of this.
I don’t even know what mine would be protecting?
sigh.
I do know I work really really really hard to keep it hidden.
T
wow looks like the topic of dragons really hit home for many of us. I have loved the Hans Christian Andersen quote for a long tim and have it on a wall hanging in one of the bedrooms.
I know I have trouble actually being aware of my fears and hard to name them. NO wonder I can’t slay or befriend that dragon.
Some dragon hurt and scare us. Some are real and many are imaginative.
I really feel God is inviting me to ponder this a little longer.
I know i have my dragons many of which I listed on my post today. I loved this post and the thoughts it provokes.
Love this Jean! I’d never heard that quote from Hans Christian Andersen, but it’s wonderful.
God certainly leads us into fearful situations to strengthen us, temper us, and to remind us that He’s in our court. When we face our fears with God in our hearts, all those dragons will run for cover.
Wonderful post!
Have a Blessed Day!
I am working hard right now, on doing what I need to do.
Fondly,
Glenda
Great post! I made a decision some time ago that I would no longer allow FEAR to rule my life choices. Once the goal was set I was shocked at how many things I step into or away from based on fear!
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I think this is particularly applicable when we view people as dragons out to harm us — I often find that those who I think are enemies are actually those most desperate for love.
And I love this line: Being brave means doing what you need to do even though it scares you.
never heard it put this way before but you got me on this we do have dragons which we allow to fire out our mouths and behavior at times. So I will share one of my dragons and that is patience I am not always patient as i should be and when I am not that fire dragon blows up and I can get so mad at myself at times…My mother use to tell me all the time Desi you have got to learn patience, I am still learning not as bad as I use to be but I still need work done in this area.
My biggest dragon now is Dave’s cancer and the fact Dave hasn’t accepted Christ as his Savior.
You got me with the word “dragon” in the title. Couldn’t be happier to find the Chesterton quote in the post. Yes. They can be beaten. Need to remember this.