OVERCOMING FEAR AND EMBRACING FAITH: (A story of Courage, Questions, and Unshakable Hope).
CHAPTER EIGHT: COURAGE TO STAND
The next morning did not look extraordinary.
The sun rose as it always did. The streets buzzed. School halls filled with noise and movement. But inside Eliana, something was different. The storm that once followed her everywhere had quieted. Not gone, but no longer leading.
She carried peace like a hidden anchor.
It showed in small ways. She walked slower, breathed deeper, listened more than she spoke. Her faith no longer felt like a performance she had to maintain. It felt like a place she could stand.
Still, she knew this peace would be tested.
It happened at lunch.
Eliana and Maya sat at their usual table beneath the old tree. The wind moved gently through the leaves, scattering sunlight across the ground. Maya watched her closely, sensing the change she couldn’t explain.
“You seem different,” Maya said, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Did church finally give you some magical answer?”
Eliana smiled softly. Not the tight, defensive smile she used to wear. A real one.
“No,” she said calmly.
Maya leaned back. “So you’re still holding on to all that God stuff?”
The words no longer hit like arrows. They landed, but they didn’t pierce.
“Eliana,” Maya continued, half-laughing, “you’re smart. You don’t really need faith. You just don’t want to admit it’s all in your head.”
A few weeks ago, Eliana would have felt her heart race, her mind scramble for arguments, her fear flare up like a warning siren. She would have tried to defend God, defend church, defend her parents, all while secretly defending herself.
But today, there was no panic. Only clarity.
She looked at her friend, not as an enemy, not as a threat, but as someone searching in a different direction.
“I believe,” Eliana said gently, “because I’ve encountered hope.”
Maya blinked, caught off guard by the calmness in her voice.
“You don’t have to understand it,” Eliana continued, her tone steady, “but it’s real to me.”
There was no debate. No raised voices. No desperate need to win.
Just truth, spoken without fear.
Maya opened her mouth as if to respond, then paused. The usual sarcasm didn’t come. For the first time, Eliana wasn’t reacting from insecurity. She wasn’t trying to prove anything. She was simply standing.
And Maya felt it.
The silence that followed wasn’t awkward. It was thoughtful.
Eliana realized something powerful in that moment: courage didn’t mean overpowering someone with arguments. It meant not shrinking when challenged. Not hiding. Not pretending.
Faith had given her a quiet strength, the kind that didn’t shout to be heard.
She no longer needed Maya’s approval to believe. She no longer needed perfect answers to stand firm. The peace from her bedroom floor had followed her here, into the middle of real life.
Fear still existed, somewhere in the background. But it no longer spoke for her.
Faith did.
As they sat there under the tree, wind moving softly around them, Eliana felt a deep gratitude. The journey through doubt, tears, and breaking had not destroyed her faith.
It had rooted it.
She was no longer the girl hiding behind memorized verses and practiced smiles. She was becoming someone who believed because she had wrestled, questioned, surrendered, and found presence in the quiet.
Faith had not made her louder.
It had made her braver.
And for the first time, Eliana understood:
Standing doesn’t always look like fighting.
Sometimes, it looks like peace that refuses to move.
Thank you for Reading 💜
CHAPTER NINE. . . Stay Tuned!
Read more stories like this on Gospelboiz
Connect with Biba Bliss.
Tiktok: biba.bliss
Facebook: Abdullahi Omonigho Abiba (Biba bliss)
Instagram: Officialbiba_bliss
 Chapter 8 by Biba Bliss){kind=link}