After the Fear is Gone.
What do you do when you are no longer afraid?
What do you do when the fear is gone?
Some of us are functional fear-addicts. We go to work and exist in the world and many have no idea that in our nights and weekends we are deep into our addiction. Others just attempt to mask their fear and hide it from others. We do things to mask it and pretend that we don’t have a problem.
In some ways, whether consciously or unconsciously, we can become addicted to fear. We can become dependent on the daily shot of adrenaline that fear provides. At first we think we can control it and we like the rush from its presence, but eventually we are gripped by it and think we cannot live with out it.
We tell God, others and ourselves that we need help but we are unwilling to let it go; to surrender.
We wake-up and are fixated our addiction. We become obsessed with feeling fear. We need our daily shot of fear. We have lived with it so long that we cannot function without it and though we detest it in many ways because of what it does to us and how it controls us; we need it to feel normal.
And if we wake-up and our fear-vial is empty we panic and find ourselves on our hands and knees in search for anything that may resemble fear. We’ll put almost anything in our fear-pipe and smoke it. We put ourselves in dangerous situations and predicaments in order to score for the day. It is a compulsion that we can’t seem to live without.
In some ways it is scary to think of what we’d do without our fear for fear has become our friend or at least our constant companion. Many of us have become dependent on fear and even have little rituals we perform as we prepare for our daily fix.
But like any addiction, at some point it begins to destroy us and our lives seem to be unmanageable. We are sick of being sick.
We surrender it to God. All of it.
Through the grace of a God who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves, one day we stand at the window looking out into the world and we recognize that we are no longer afraid; the desire is gone. At that moment we become present to ourselves, God and to the moment.
"Martha, Martha you are worried by many things. come sit at my feet and chill..."
"Give no thought for tomorrow."
"Fear not, I am with you."
Breathe.
8 Comments:
My freind George did a post a while back where he revealed "The Plan" for man and all of it's requirements. We chuckled after he kept us hanging for a few days in order to reveal it all with the word......"BREATH".
As I have began to trust and believe in a God who has no anger with anyone, who looked upon the compassionate work of His Son and was satisfied, I have discovered that this perfect Love does cause all fear to simply disappear and be replaced with peace.
I've always been struck by the idea of fearing God, as in "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge". It seems to suggest that there's a type of fear which is healthy that brings up to a point of humility and dependence before God. I'm not really sure what it means to fear God and I also am quite sure that God does not want us to live in or for fear, as your post talks about. There's also something to the idea that being "safe" (and in a place where we don't need to fear) can be a dangerous place to be because it leads to complacency. I guess the word fear is refering to two different things here, and we need to learn more about the "good fear" to overcome the bad kind. Does that make any sense, sorry that I haven't fully processed my thoughts on that one.
Damn it. Why do you keep doing this to me?
Are you speaking from experience or JUST READING MY MIND!!
My stinking fearful mind!
Thank you, Rick.
Here's a deep belly breath in gratitude for your awesome post.
PUBLISH SOMETHING!!!!
Thanks for all the feedback and comments.
Danielle and Pastor Doug, I am flattered by your kind and encouraging words.
Thanks!
Thank you for these reflections on fear, Rick. Very thoughtful post. I especially enjoyed the comments, also. Pastor Doug speaks my thougths when he wrote, "Jesus taught people to live from the inside-out, to exist out of the depths of our being, instead of reacting to external circumstances. Breathing helps, but we need to recognize that we are breathing. Or better yet, that we are being breathed."
Fear is an element of our biology, it seems. I noticed this in myself when flying recently. When turbulance caused the plane to suddenly drop in the sky, my heart rate surged with a sudden release of adrenalin, regardless of how at peace I might have been feeling. I began to enjoy becoming aware of this sensation when it happened, and in the watching felt able to transcend of the feeling of fear, and feel for that point within me that remained unaffected. In my life I truly feel there is nothing to fear, though my body will surely react stongly to any perceived danger and hang on tight to live.
Fear is motivating. I take notice when I hear fear language in the media... it is everywhere. Fear causes us to buy things... look at what fear of germs causes us to buy! Fear promotes a political viewpoint - so easy to get sucked into. Fear causes us to achieve - to do well in school and on the job because of the fear of failure.
What would our lives be like without this? As you ask, what do we do when the fear is gone? Do we move into complacency and not react in the face of danger, not move to protect ourselves or others? Would be lose our motivation to achieve?
When centered in God, witnessing divinity, there is freedom to respond, and also a self existing wisdom that is trustworthy. Without fear we move with a kind benevolence and compassion,for ourselves and others. For me, I also find the excitement of the glory of God to take the place of the perceived need for fear-induced excitement.
Beautiful words: "Fear not, for I am with you."
Yeah, I'm not sure I would get out of bed without fear. Seems like a basic motivator. Maybe Jesus would have us upgrade to love as a motivator? Fear's pretty addictive though.
A man who fears nothing, loves nothing. Without love there is not much joy in your life. I could be wrong.
Post a Comment
<< Home