I recently joined up with a wonderful group of women who are charged with “fearlessly expanding the feminine voice in our churches, communities, and culture.” And oh, how they do! Strong, fearless voices reach out through the blogosphere,* books, social media, and prayers, to put the hopes, dreams, joys, and sorrows of women into words. It is an honor to be among them.

But I wonder.

How “fearless” is my voice? How often do I let fear of divergent views of friends and family sway or swallow my words? And this even though I know I will be loved by my friends and family even when disagreements arise? How often do I decide to push away the nagging, burning words of personal experiences because they may expose too much of my life, with its successes and failures, its ups and downs?

The answer is far too often. Will that be any different after I write this post? Will fearlessly admitting to my fearfulness allow me to say it all, do it all, expose it all? I doubt it.

But the more I am exposed to the strength of others around me, and the more I see them write of the hard things of life, the more I am strengthened and emboldened to do the same. We all need community, no matter our stage or station in life.

I am fortunate enough to have a community through this blog as well. Readers are in the 4-digits, and hopefully there will be more to come. So right now I’m reaching out to this community and asking for help. To keep me from flaking on my commitment to be a “fearless” voice, I have a favor to ask: if you read something here or elsewhere by me that you disagree with, would you please let me know? Bring it up in the comment section, on Facebook, on Twitter, or, if you’re family, anywhere other than the dinner table, instead of pretending the disagreement doesn’t exist? And then tell me that’s it’s okay for us to agree to disagree. That we’re still in this community together anyway. And if you see something you like, let me know that, too.

Fear comes from the unknown. So while it’s up to me to overcome hangups and obsessions, I do hope you might help me out a little bit along the way.

(*See the blogroll to the right for links.)