The other day I was teaching my kids to dive. I kept saying things like, "Trust me. Just do what I say." But if you remember learning to dive, there's some fear at first. "Will my face smack the water?" "Will I do a belly flop?" That fear will lead you to pull back rather than letting yourself fall in. And here's the irony: Pulling back will cause your face to smack the water and you to do a belly flop. So the only way to experience the pain of diving is if you're afraid of the pain of diving.

I wonder how much following Jesus is like that? We need to trust God and just let ourselves follow, but fear sometimes causes us to pull back. And it's pulling back that will cause us to experience pain. So the irony is that it's because of our fear that we experience the pain we're afraid of.