"I can't risk that!"
I can't risk loving him or her.
I can't risk revealing my weaknesses.
I can't risk leaving my job to take this new one.
I can't risk giving away that money.
I can't risk trying out that new skill I have.
I can't risk going to visit her - I wouldn't know what to say to someone who has had such a tragedy.
Have you ever stopped to think about how often fear tries to rule your decision-making?
Yet how often God says to us "Fear not." Jesus says "Fear is useless."
Once we let fear rule us, we can't think clearly, we can't measure a situation with realistic faith, hope, or love. Instead we drown in a torrent of fear before we can even try, because fear is the greatest Enemy of faith, hope, and love.
Once we turn a situation over to God, once we humbly ask God as our greatest Counselor to guide us, to lead us, once we begin to step out of ourselves, trusting Him, we are filled with His Spirit's power and enlightenment. As St. Paul says in his second letter to his young comrade Timothy, who must have been frightened of his call to leadership, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7),