Think of your most embarrassing moment – ever. Then picture this, because I think I can top it. You’re a person who has always been a little (or a lot) afraid of dogs. You decide one morning that you’re going to get up early, get your butt out of bed, and go jogging in your neighborhood, a quiet bedroom community with lots of young families. As you’re rounding the bend and turning towards home, you see two small white dogs out of the corner of your eye – one looks like a fluffy white poodle, and the other a bit like the Taco Bell dog. They see you too. They take off running after you, jumping and snarling and biting at your legs and ankles. You get home and discover several dark bruises and 6 vampire-like bite marks on both legs. You call Animal Control, and they proceed to round up the poodle and its accomplice and cart them off for rabies testing, which thankfully comes back with a ‘negative’ on both counts.

That was my day, one cold November morning not very long ago. My friends still cackle hysterically whenever they think about it. I think I need new friends.

AND I need to get over my fear of dogs. In the grand scheme of things, I am a human being with far superior intelligence and clearly I have the advantage. But in one area I am very, very weak, and that is in my fear. I honestly (I can’t believe I’m saying this) loathe almost all dogs. I like my friend April’s dog, but that’s only because it would never dare attack me with April standing by - she is Alpha dog in their relationship and they both know it. But other than that, I have been bitten by dogs more than anyone else that I know, and I am also more afraid of dogs than anyone else I know. And in my mind, that can’t be just a coincidence.

You may not share (and I hope you don't) my fear of dogs. But where we may have something in common is that many of us reading this now have a fear of what bites at our health, our wellbeing, our wholeness, our chances of happiness in life. We fear our eating disorder, our addictions, our memories, our thoughts, our fears themselves. We fear change, and we fear the status quo. We fear other people, but even more we fear ourselves.

I read a great quote recently that said, ‘Courage means rising to meet the demands of each moment with total delight, knowing you are equal to it. Courage means having faith that within you is an innate force whose essence is never depleted by external events. Live your life courageously, knowing that whatever you are faced with is not stronger than you are. You are equal to each other. Your problem is not greater than you are, nor is it smaller. This is courage. You look at your problem as your equal. And therefore, you can rise to the demands of each moment. With great delight you are able to face and accept whatever comes your way.’

I can honestly say that I have not been jogging much since that day the white fluffy poodle and its pint-sized sidekick chased me down the street. When I do go, I jog down a different road and I carry a big wooden stick. Believe me, I know that I look pretty ridiculous, jogging along past the bus stops and middle school, carrying this big stick and looking nervously from side to side. And I know that someday (probably soon) I’m going to have to get over my fear of dogs, or I will continue to get chased and bitten from one end of the globe to the other.

My friends tell me that all I have to do is face the dogs when they come my way, stand up to them, show them I am not afraid. But it is harder to do than it sounds, isn’t it? I managed to kick my 15-year battle with anorexia and bulimia – how is it that a little white poodle can still send me home with my tail between my legs? But that is how it is. At each stage of the journey, there are new fears we must confront, surmount and overcome.

Your eating disorder, your issue, your weak point, is not stronger than you are, just as the little white poodle isn’t stronger than me – unless I allow it to be. Unless you ALLOW your weakness to steal your strength, you will never ever find yourself less than its equal, and eventually you will taste the sweet satisfaction of victory.

So do not allow the thief of fear to steal your hope, your faith, all the things you want to live for. When your eating disorder barks at your heels and bites at your ankles, trying to intimidate and scare you into submission, fight back. Look at it and say to yourself, ‘I am stronger than this. I am better than this. I can DO this – I CAN overcome!’ You really can overcome, you know. After the story I just told you, you should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I could heal from my eating disorder, anyone who wants to heal can do it.

And not only that, but I am here, and the Good News community is here, to tell you, to show you, to guide and support you, to encourage and comfort you, to lift you up and remind you how great, wonderful and worthy of new life you are, to remind you whenever you doubt that yes, it CAN be done!

So just do it. It is worth it – YOU are worth it.

With much love,

Shannon