"No, she's not hardly Alice"

In Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, Alice is shown an ancient scroll, the Oraculum. It depicts her in the future slaying an evil dragon called a “Jabberwocky.”

She takes one look at what is to be and refuses to accept the fact that she would ever be “that” Alice.

Absolem, the hookah smoking caterpillar replies to her protest blowing smoke in his aloof sort of way,

“No, she’s not hardly Alice.”

Meaning she’s not hardly the Alice she will eventually become.

There is a strange thing about fear, it is a feeling originally designed to be for our good.

By definition fear is a negative and strong emotion intended to alert us of danger, hyper-focus our attention on the situation at hand which then enables us to seek protection from imminent danger.

If it is meant for our good, why does it have such a paralyzing effect on many of us at times when there is no real imminent danger present? Fear that is out of proportion can become this debilitating nervousness that causes so much worry and self-doubt.

Making us miss out on so much.

I do think if many years ago, I was given the opportunity to see events of my life unfold in a scroll as in the movie, I would have reacted much the same way as Alice did. I would think, “there is no way I can handle a situation like that on my own!”

Spoiler Alert ** Alice does eventually slay the dragon and save her friends despite her initial objection.

How did Alice accomplish such an tremendous and intimidating task?

Throughout her journey through Wonderland she grew and she shrank. She faced trials and uncomfortable situations which inevitably cultivated her character to become a determined, faithful and courageous young woman.

These circumstances unbeknownst to Alice at the time were equipping her to be the mature person she needed to become to handle the daunting assignment placed on such an initially unwilling girl.

As the time drew nearer, it was the courage she came to find and the love she had for her friends that gave her the determination to slay the evil Jabberwocky as foretold in the Oraculum .

I have learned through life's lessons that trials will come to everyone, and they cannot be avoided. I have also learned that you can either fear them, or you can change your perspective and have gratitude in the midst of them. I know being stretched beyond your comfort zone and not staying the same is uncomfortable, but also know this, that you are growing, getting stronger, smarter and wiser because of it. Really, who wants to be the same as they were when they were say 3 years old?

Yes, we were so very cute and innocent, but we could not really handle

things on our own nor help others.

Could we?

So as we continually develop courage and strength during personal trials, we too are being equipped to banish or defeat our own Jabberwocky (fears) with the power of love.

God's word tells us, “There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgement - is one not yet fully formed in love,” (1 John 4:18 The Message).

So I get it, we don't live in Wonderland. This is neither a dream or a fantasy, what does this look like in the real world?

Take for example, the common fear of looking or becoming older.

At the root, this fear may translate to the fear of being irrelevant.

So then, how do we deal with it?

One of the elements of fear to remember is that it causes us becoming hyper focused on the fear itself.

Step one is to disarm the enemy by not giving it so much attention.

Step two, slay the fear by walking in love.

Perhaps in the example above, the focus of being relevant could be turned in a different direction. Rather than focusing on the fear of losing our attractiveness or independent abilities, the focus is redirected to finding ways to show others how relevant they are by extending and showing love to them.

Whether we know them or not.

Throughout my life I have allowed fear to dictate the direction of many of the decisions I have made. Fear of others opinions, fear of making a mistake, fear of failure or fear of success.

Yes, you can say I did a lot of growing up and shrinking back down.

Much like Alice at the beginning of her journey, I couldn’t see when I was younger the things that I was capable of doing.

It has been difficult to look back “through the looking glass” and see how my ”fear of making mistakes” has been such a foolish fear because... well... I inevitably made mistakes anyway. The thing I was fearing, happened anyway because (1) nobody is perfect, and (2) I made decisions based on other fears like “the fear of going forward,”

“fear of people’s opinions” etc.

Next time you are tempted to be too hard on yourself think about this:

Remember it takes courage to live your life day to day knowing there may be real obstacles in front of you and having the faith to put one foot in front of the other, to keep going anyway.

Be happy about your progress.

Remember it takes great courage to face the day already afraid, but have the determination to not rely on a crutch to make it through.

Even though you may not have fully believed you could, you did it anyway.

Be grateful for your progress.

Remember it takes courage to be fearful and yet sing praises anyway.

Be happy to know you are learning what is a real fear or an just an immobilizing internal voice telling you that can’t.

Remember it takes courage to know the enemies (fears) you personally face. It takes wisdom to disarm them and love to overcome them.

Be strong because you already have what it takes, even if you don’t know it yet.

Don’t allow fear to have the final say in your story.