Downward
For an invitation to live a fear has to die. The fear of looking foolish, the fear of hearing the word no. Jesus talked about the necessity for death. Unless that single grain of wheat dies, it remains a grain it gets trapped there. But once it dies, it produces. Once we allow a fear to die we can move beyond it and it produces a greater seeing. The fact that we are indeed hidden with Christ with God. So the principle is that something has to die for something else to live. Of course death is not a matter of if, but it is a matter of when. What Christianity is about at its more mature levels is dying before you die. If you do this then you are not afraid of dying. We can practice this by invitation by letting fear after fear after fear die. The direction of the spiritual journey is not upward but downward. Dying to live. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church and maybe we and they can say death where is your sting.
