I recently read of a successful businessman who was asked if he ever felt fear when taking on new projects. His response was very insightful.
He explained that any time he sensed a fearful of failure, he would harness that energy and turn it into a fear of regret. That is, he would choose to focus his fear on the possibility of looking back and realizing he didn’t do what he could have done to achieve his full potential. He explained how successful entrepreneurs take action when the fear of not doing something overpowers their fear of actually doing it, and the fear of future regret forces them to take action.
I thought of how well his observation harmonizes with the Christian life. How often does God prompt us to share the Gospel with someone or launch a new avenue of ministry, but we remain paralyzed by fear of failure.
Next time that happens, fear instead the regret you will experience at the end of life when you realize you’ve failed to redeem the time.
Rick Grubbs is best known as the host of “Redeeming the Time,” a one-minute radio program featured on hundreds of radio outlets around the world. He has spoken thousands of times on Biblical time management in all 50 states and 26 other countries. He is the author of the book “Morning Momentum: God’s plan for launching an unstoppable day”. He and his wife Carrie live in Salisbury NC with several of their 12 children.
