When I was in the army our instructors used to tell us that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Anthony de Mello, similarly, tells the story of a mouse who lived in constant distress because of its fear of the cat. A magician took pity on it and turned it into a cat. But then it became afraid of the dog. So the magician turned it into a dog. Then it began to fear the panther, so the magician turned it into a panther. Whereupon it was full of fear for the hunter. At this point, the magician gave up. He turned it into a mouse again saying, “Nothing I do for you is going to be of any help because you have the heart of a mouse.”
It reminds us that is fear itself, and the answer to that is a new heart – a heart of faith.