Culture often says to conquer fear by mastering it. But what if you don’t need to master it?

Fear can’t take anything from you. It can only tell you stories and receive what it convinces you to hand over.

And most of the time, we give it more than we realize.

Fear shows up any time you’re close to something meaningful. That’s not a flaw, that’s often confirmation.

But at some point, we started treating fear like a signal to stop instead of another sign post along the way.

There’s a moment in Moses’ story where God tells him to lead his people out of slavery. Moses is 80, unsure of himself, and afraid of public speaking. He tells God all the reasons he can’t do it – his past, his weakness, his fear.

God doesn’t reassure him with comfort or confidence. He just basically says, “Go, I’ll be with you.”

That’s it. No motivational speech, just a promise that he’ll be present.

The fear didn’t leave, but Moses stopped letting it convince him to give it control.

And that’s the shift – fear doesn’t have to go away for you to move forward, you just have to stop giving it the authority to decide what you do.

Here’s what I’ve noticed:

Fear is very real. But it’s not a flaw. It’s part of being human.

Fear grows when we give it energy by obsessing, avoiding, or trying to outsmart it.

But you don’t have to argue with fear to move forward. You just have to see it for what it is and keep going.

Fear feeds on control. The more you try to reason with it and manage outcomes, the louder it gets.

Peace doesn’t come from having a plan, it comes when you decide that it’s okay if you don’t have one.

What if instead of overpowering fear, you just stop giving it the right to decide what you do?

Fear will ask for what matters to you. But you don’t have to hand it over.

It only takes what you give it.