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SUFFOCATING FEAR

During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Kruschev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. In the midst of his speech a heckler shouted "You were one of his colleagues why didn’t you stop him?"

Kruschev screamed, "Who said that?" There was a deathly silence as nobody in the room dared moved a muscle. Then Kruschev said, "Now you know why?"

Fear will silence us. Fear will confuse us. And fear can paralyze us. It’s like the coils of a snake that tighten around its victims so that when it prey breathes out it constricts itself tighter, thus not allowing the lungs to take in a breath. It stealthily seeks the innocent among us and tightens itself around us. We are paralyzed and are finding it difficult even to breathe. There is only one who can get us out.

(Source: From a sermon by Shawn Miller, "Living in a Hole" 7/6/2009)

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