IS BEING AFRAID OF DEATH THE SAME AS BEING AFRAID OF LIFE?

reading in Jeremiah this morning… it took alot of courage to continue to speak  what God was speaking to him.  He said some stuff that could only enrage the powers that be.  He said stuff that got him beaten and thrown into dark ,small, muddy places…he said stuff that got him left to die in the bottom of a deep hole.

But in the end, he lived and was allowed to return to his home… when the ones who had tried to take his life, the ones who tried to manipulate the situation to save their lives, lost theirs.

IT seems that if Jeremiah had beeen afraid to truly live even when it surely meant death..he wouldn’t have had life in the end.

So i ask myself….is fearing death..the same as fearing life?

The one  who seeks to save his life will lose it but the one who loses his life for  will find it.

“If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s term”

I continually feel this thread slipping through my grip..this thread of trying to preserve my own life…trying to grasp the reins , so to speak…hold on to this situation, try to manipulate it to go this certain way…and knowing that when i do..i am stuck with my own “terms”‘…but when i let go and allow God to be in control, i get His “terms” …

I get to choose:  either have what i can figure out..or what He can.

If i am controlled by a fear of death, i stop having true LIFE.

It ‘s amazing when we change our mind set to that of a First Responder…or a Fire Fighter…or a Teacher…or a business person who takes risk so others can have provision…

When we think of ourselves as people who run to the battle, toward the sound of guns firing, Into the tents where there is  Cholera ,  going to the home where Meth is cooked, Into the  classrooms where kids are desperately trying to hurt someone, investing everything in the dream that the experts say is too risky…when we think of ourselves this way … everything changes.  And we find ourselves where LIFE takes on capital letters.

Our goal is no longer to preserve our own lives..but to use them entirely.

When we are not afraid to die, we are no longer afraid to LIVE .