The Familiar but Unwelcomed Stranger.
As you take a step closer to your dreams what awaits you?
Who greets you in the morning?
On Monday of this week I had an encounter with the Familiar but Unwelcomed Stranger.
These are my thoughts.
I opened my eyes this morning only to find you sitting on my chest.
With the weight of your presence
I found it difficult to breathe.
What do you want?
Why are you here?
Who let you in?
With the vengeance of a riptide you pursued me,
hoping that in my panic I would drown.
My desperate fight would only leave me
weak and exhausted
Awaiting prey for your constricting grip to
Strangle, smother, and suffocate my very life.
But Hope, Faith and Desire stared you you in the eyes
and saw you for all that you are--
the Master of Deception for you appear so real.
"You cannot have him." they shouted
As you let loose to cover you ears you began to vanquish.
You are nothing more than vapor left to evaporate into my lungs.
And just then I began to breathe. Filling my lungs with life.
Fear is amazing.
Fear slows me down and speeds me up.
Fear causes me to hesitate.
It shows up to persuade me from being who I am and attempts to prevent me from becoming all that I can.
What does fear want from you?
It wants me to doubt that I am enough as one created by the Hand of Love.
Self-doubt and the unknown allow fear to prance through the door of my soul with the familiarity of a college freshman returning home for Christmas.
Notice your breath.
What is fear saying to you?
Let your hopes and desires speak to fear and call it what it is--
a deceiver.
Just because it is familiar doesn't mean that it has the right to stay.
Why not treat fear as an unwelcome stranger who desires to rob you of all your possessions?
10 Comments:
Fear causes me to hesitate too, and second guess myself.
It also makes me afraid to look at the Bible critically sometimes, and by that I mean dare to look at it in a new light.
I would like to be freer, becuase I know there is SO MUCH MORE to God than I've yet realised.
Fear tells me, He can't really forget about your sins...You are not good enough and you never will be....
But I KNOW BETTER!!
Fear is also the opposite of Joy. The Joy that we are suppose to find only in Jesus. Not happiness...true Joy.
Nice post.
B~
Lately I have been wrapped up in fear. Fear of losing my house and belongings? Why?
Moved to a new area, and have not been able to find a job. We lost over 60% of our monthly income due to some unforseen circumstances and with me unable to find work.
Please pray for me as I do not allow fear to freeze me and rob me of my confidence and joy.
beautifully said, Rick.. i love where imagination took you on this. we have to visualize fear as the stranger he is and force him out of our lives, our moments, our comings and goings.
Great illustration of fear. I agree with what everyone else said. The main thing I think fear does to me is steal my peace and causes me to doubt that I can trust God.
I have less fear today than I used to, but not as little as I want to.
I like the idea of it being a familiar enemy. :)
Well said.
Great post. I hope you don't mind that I printed it to look at again later. This is a lesson I need to learn, and learn again.
Another great post.
I'm glad I found your blog. I saw the link on Danny Sims' blog.
Depression was for many years the familiar stranger in my life. When he was no longer welcome he sent doubt and fear in his place. Lately it's just doubt.
Thank you for leading me here, Rick. There are so many ways to conceptualize this thing we know as fear. I feel this sense of an unwelcomed stranger, who at once is familiar yet not fully known.
When we can just notice the feelings, watch them arise, look at their shape and feel the sensations evoked, then fear becomes "...nothing more than vapor left to evaporate into my lungs." And we know that we can
"just begin to breathe. Filling (our) lungs with life."
Fear dissipates in the light, in our very breath when we allow it.
And think of what we could do when fear does not occlude our vision!
Thank you Rick.
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