Every visionary was laughed at before they were revered. Every genius was attacked before they were beloved. Every leader was misunderstood before they were celebrated.

Howard Markel estimates that the total number of Americans who died of the 1918 pandemic was between 500,000 and 750,000; the

said Oswald Chambers, "is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.

We need to admit that we can't get through even the challenges of today--much less the problems that lie ahead--without some outside intervention.

Even to someone as notorious as Madonna, I think Jesus would say, 'I'll help you experience the fulfillment that has eluded you despite your struggle to find it. I'll help heal whatever's driving you to affirm your self-worth in self-defeating ways. But I can only help you if you let me.

Just as certain people are more susceptible to particular diseases, some temperaments —especially those that tend to be melancholy or contemplative — are more vulnerable to questions and doubts.

The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living out fears.

Life is filled with terrifying moments, and we cannot stop the onslaught of fear any more than we can hold back the wind. But we can always choose our response. The very winds that cause the eagle to soar later in life terrified it when it was an eaglet. Allow fear to drive you toward God.

When God decided this world needed you, He created a village to surround you, and His presence is ever with you.

First and foremost, we are not to be afraid. We are to banish every aspect of fear from our minds and not allow it to muddy our thinking.

Though she never moved, she was more alive than I. In the light of her beauty and strength, I realized what I had lost. Because of fear, I had forfeited strength, life, and beauty. I had lost a sense of my true self, and with that loss so much of what God wanted for me was yet unrealized.