Gellius

One of the most valuable clues nature offers us concerning the successful handling of life is this; if you want the good things in your life to prosper, establish the conditions upon which they thrive. If you want to remove an evil from your life, upset the conditions upon which that evil has prospered.

Faith flourishes when immersed in things that cannot easily be shaken. It falters and dies when grounded in perishables.

Some years ago the night sky erupted with an explosion of “falling stars”, and in a Negro settlement there were thoughts of impending doom and cries of terror. Several Negroes ran to a white-haired old saint of their race to ask him what they could do. They found the old gentleman on the porch of his rickety cabin with his chair tipped back against the wall, his eyes on the stars and his face alight with smiles. Before they could ask his advice, he ventured.

- “Ain’t dat a pretty sight? Jes see dem little-bitty stars shootin’ acrost de sky! But look at dem big ones; dey ain’t moved an inch”.

His faith in the changeless kept him steady.

Fear thrives on inaction. It shrivels and fades when a person acts as if the best were sure to happen. Many a person who has been afraid of flying, when forced by circumstances to take an airplane trip, has come to prefer this mode of travel to any other. Had he never flown, he would have remained fearful. Action made the difference.

Most who love diving from a high board were fearful of the first plunge. Action killed the germ of fear. Nearly every famed public speaker admits he was once panicked by the prospect of appearing before an audience. Doing the worth-while thing we fear is like boiling a germ-laden utensil. We create a condition under which fear-germs cannot thrive.

All the good in the world and all the evil depend alike upon the right conditions for their existence and prosperity.

(Harold E. Kohn, Pathways to Understanding).