Fear and Fire

Parents, are you listening? No, I don’t mean catching the gist – are you listening? Are you hearing the words? 16 kids – I want to pack them up and take them home. My fear is they won’t be heard. My prayer is they will.

The voices are strong. The voices are shaky. The voices are transparent. The voices want to be heard.

• My greatest fear is failing and letting people down
• My greatest fear is going on to college
• My greatest fear is being completely alone
• My greatest fear doing and no one notices
• My greatest fear is being alone
• My greatest fear is failure
• My greatest fear is being around people
• My greatest fear is not being good enough
• My greatest fear is opening up
• My greatest fear is the future
• My greatest fear is not being loved
• My greatest fear is being alone
• My greatest fear is not being accepted
• My greatest fear alone in the dark
• My greatest fear losing my family for being who I am
• My greatest fear is not being good enough

We know as adults that we can’t experience joy without sadness. We can’t experience peace without fear. But, but, but my heart breaks for teens who’s the greatest fear is being alone, ignored, unknown, unloved, unseen. Can there be a greater fear in life than being unseen?

We all have our fears. As adults we have worries.

• Fear of success.
• Fear of failure.
• Fear of letting others down.
• …and on and on.

But working with Teens, a different caliber of fears are heard. They are real. They are raw. They are LOUD.

Ignored. Unknown. Unloved. Alone.

Can you hear them now? Are you listening?

When you face your fear head-on, you immediately step out of your comfort zone. You enter a world of the unknown, a place you’ve never been before. You taste freedom.

Fear stops you in your tracks. Breaking through the block takes you to a new level. You break through the lies you tell yourself.

Who do you want to be? This is the question to the teens. How do you want to be seen? What do you want to be known for? When your drive for who you choose to becomes greater than your fear, the fear becomes irrelevant. You embrace the uncomfortable and charge forward demolishing the fear into tiny bits of nothing.

As we enter the final day of Teen Leadership Foundation, these 16 future leaders are embracing their stories. As Dr. Seuss says, “Why to fit in when you were born to stand out.” The lesson of the day.

Today is the defining moment for these teens. The line is drawn in the sand. Their life begins now – in new ways, with new understanding. They own their story, they Run to the Roar and fears go up in flames!