A discussion with some good friends got some thoughts percolating in my mind. It occurred to me that, whenever I'm considering an objective good that I am afraid of or have some element of fear about for whatever reason, it has never been the case that the fear was an indication of God's will for me. Holy fear is something different -- fearing to sin and offend God is obviously leading me to God's will. With something that is objectively good, though, if I have fear about it, it is almost always an obstacle to my discernment of God's will rather than God trying to tell me something about the situation. And the times that I've recognized that and done what I could to allay the fear, as well as ask God for the grace to surrender to his will in the matter, things have been much more clear.
For example, before I met Michael I felt that I needed to discern about the possibility of a call to religious life. For some reason, I was very fearful that God would call me to this! It sounds so silly to say it, but there it is. Of course God's will for me is going to be my greatest good, but there I was, fearful about it. And it wasn't until I finally decided that I needed to give my fears to God and surrender and look for what really was his will that I began to have some peace. First of all I felt that if it was his will it would be a good for me (okay, not rocket science), and then I began to realize that it wasn't what he was calling me to, but he wanted my willingness to follow his will without strings attached on my part.
It sometimes seems so hard to follow JPII's recommedation -- Do not be afraid! But perhaps it's more simple than it seems.
