No Fear

I posted this photo on my Facebook page a few days ago. I love it particularly because of the sentiment at the bottom, but also because the pilot at far right is an Air Force Academy classmate of mine. We were cadets when Jeannie Flynn became the first female fighter pilot, and it's cool to see how commonplace they have now become. As I wrote in my Facebook post, we can drop the "female" part now and just call them fighter pilots!

Another female classmate of mine, who numbered among their ranks before she separated from the Air Force, responded to my post. She really gets annoyed by these all-female "propaganda flights," as she calls them. She finds that they tend to do more damage by setting them apart, when she fought so hard not to be treated differently. As I thought about what she said--and I thoroughly understand where she's coming from--I realized that I'm proud of these girls not primarily because they've broken barriers and succeeded in what used to be exclusively a man's world. I am in awe of them (and her) because they are fearless.

I opted not to become a pilot. At the time I said it was because I didn't have a strong desire to fly. As I reflect, though, I think it was really because I was afraid. I was afraid I wouldn't be good enough at flying, smart enough for the academics. I was afraid I would panic in the cockpit. I was afraid of failing. Looking back, I often made those types of decisions, the safe decisions.

I grew up in a very small town in south Louisiana. I graduated at the top of my class of 35 and was never challenged. I finished my first semester at the Academy with a 0.89 GPA. No, that's not a typo. I spent the month of January 1994 crying myself to sleep at night, waiting for the powers that be to decide whether I would be academically dismissed. For the first time in my life, I had failed. Though I was able to turn it around academically and graduate, from that point forward, I made many decisions out of a fear of failure. During my sophomore year, while going through the Academy's soaring program (learning to fly gliders), when the time came to solo, I declined.

As I followed this train of thought, I realized that when I finally made the decision to pursue my long-deferred dream of law school, I finally pushed fear aside. Fear has no place in the extraordinary life. If God is to accomplish mighty things through us, we cannot succumb to fear. We have to allow Him to exchange His strength for ours. He will make us soar, and we will never fly solo. So as I think of all my current classmates who are pursuing jobs and hoping to be used mightily to promote justice in this world, I encourage you all to dream BIG, be BOLD, and BANISH fear!

"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7.