Beyond fear...
"Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
~Isaiah 40:1-5

In my job I think of my work as making straight the paths of communication. Reading Johann Christoph Arnold of the Bruderhof community, I find a new meaning for the metaphor:

Presidents and other world leaders might want to take heed of the words of Isaiah..... [It carries] the same message: that our hearts have to change, so that crooked ways become straight and rough places plain.

It is in our hearts that every valley must be exalted, and every mountain of pride and arrogance made low. Then all violence and warfare will cease and the coming of God’s kingdom will reconcile everyone and everything. All death and disease will be overcome. Jesus will be lifted up, and all people will be drawn to him, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed. This is the message of Advent.

Find the full text here.