When we were kids, the big woods behind the house was scary. Leaving our neighborhood was scary. Going to the Mall was scary (remember 1984?). Whenever we venture out without the comforts and knowledge of what variables we will run into it is just plain scary. One author stated "we fear what we don't understand". This fear is not the same fear as when we were kids full of campfire stories of hacking psychopaths and being buried alive. This fear is something we have never fully learned how to overcome. It is gripping in small matters and paramount matters. Decades may pass by and we can stay rusted into the same thinking patterns about fear and instead of us asking "What am I missing out on because I refuse to investigate, attempt and experiment with?", or we can bury that question and never reach a fundemental spiritual, physical, intellectual and financial places we may actually belong.
The author proposes that overcoming fear is a question of "What does it cost to stay locked in any degree of it?" (disregarding a healthy fear of wild animals, unbounded physical forces and living in the midst of a war zone). Let me give you a short personal history in my life. As I was growing up my parents were instilling a good healthy bank of self esteem. My mother and father lifted us in our triumphs and reanimated us in our failures. They way they showed the love of God to us put us all on fine paths to becoming powerful, magnetic and responsible human beings. There was no fear in this life other than mom's spanks, dad's leather belt and a God who was reflected in then both as a God of fairness and justice and mostly, love.
In 1977 my parents were divorcing. My older sister and I were stunned, my younger sister shut down and my little brother must have been impacted, but couldn't understand at the age of 5. From that series of months everyone in the family had their self esteem shattered. The children were filled with swirling thoughts of self blame and doubt, both parents were broken. One needed healing and the other needed correction. Because of selfishness, because of sin; fear was born. Shortly after other than sports which was a release for anger and a channel for teenage energy, my whole life was bound up in fear. I feared asking girls out on dates. I feared studying, I feared that my place in our small home town was unknown and was going to head that way for a long time. Although I did well in college for a short stint on a wrestling scholarship, my fear, the continuation of one parent's chain of mistakes, indulgences and a serious economic turn down kept me scared for 12 years. I decided to use drugs and alcohol to give me false confidence, which as you already know, promotes more fear and emptiness. I let fear, which eroded my self esteem and confidence and was self inflicted steal a decade plus from my life. Why? I didn't have the number one tool in my life to know how to remove it. Fear; I wouldn't have called it that back in those times, but then again hindsight is 20/20.
Fear in all its forms if not handled for what degree and scope it exists in paralyzes, rots and propagates negative human condition. Many are asking "how do I know what is false fear, fear I should accept as something that will protect me, or fear that is outright self generated?". I am not a psychologist. However, I met the great psychologist and He answered those questions and cured me. God. The God of Abraham, His son and the searching and knowing Holy Spirit. The therapy was free, well, it cost time and some examination, some exertion and some acceptance. Next blog explains the answers to those questions, the therapy to take and what happens when its gone. God be with you!!!
"My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6
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