Our Fear Factor
I have noticed more lately than ever before how much fear there is in the world. It is a controlling part of so many people’s lives. It’s simple things like being sure you wear the right thing when you go outside, or being sure you say the right things. But it can be more complicated; like fear of losing your possessions, or your relationship with someone, or losing the life of a loved one.
Like wandering down a dark street wondering what hides in the shadows, we often wonder thru life fearful of its outcome. We take the necessary steps to be on the defense and be sure that we don’t get hurt – but we do many of these things as a sacrifice to our life and what it could be. Sometimes fear generates anger, sometimes it generates sadness, other times doubt. But in defense of fear we also keep so many other things from entering our lives as well.
Being on the offense against fear can often lead us to do reckless things that we can learn to regret later. The offensive could mean we lose friends, we hurt ourselves carelessly or we falsely take on things that we shouldn’t have. Either way it puts us in the middle of reacting to everything with a single lens to look though ( and they aren’t rose-colored).
A good friend of mine once pointed out to me that the opposite of love doesn’t seem to be hate, it seems to be fear. If that is true, we do a great job of insulating ourselves from love, we don’t say things we could to others, we make decisions to continue relationships or end them purely based on fear. A lot of psychologist couches are occupied by people who have not been able to honestly share their love with/for another person – I imagine often because of fear.
Our love of God is compromised, our love of our fellow humans is painted with all sorts of prejudices. We isolate family and friends because of it. Is like FDR once said “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”? Can we exchange fear with love? Or will we forever be measuring our “fear-factors”?
It sometimes makes me sad to think we have so much more to give. Okay – I fear I have written too much. I am done now.
Tracks In The Dust 