By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

Petrified.  What does that word mean to you?  Scared and terrified?  Hard as rock and very old?

This petrified tree is on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi.  The school has incorporated it into their landscape, even paving their sidewalks around the tree.

One who is afraid to go on, terrified of what’s next, or fearful of the unknown circumstances of tomorrow might become petrified.  As such, that person is then difficult to budge, firmly planted in their fears.  Not all fears are unfounded, of course, but they do not have to weigh us down until we become unmovable.  If just a mustard seed’s worth of faith can move a mountain, then surely it couldn’t take that much to loose the fear of a petrifying situation.

Identify the things that scare you or worry you this week.  Those things may not ever completely go away, but we can learn to make our paths around them, going on about our lives, learning from our fears and moving ahead.

Take whatever petrifies you and turn it into a place to sit and enjoy God’s beauty and provision in your life.  Be thankful for even the fears, because they make us strong.

Just a thought.