As a generation of time has passed I have gone from reckless and fearless to careful and cowed. Fear, it turns out, is one of those very broad words including:
- What I'm afraid to/not to, do
- What/who I'm afraid of
- If I do or don't do something, fear of regret
Fear can be healthy. Hunter and I went to the Grand Canyon once, some crazy guy was running pell mell on the very edge. I can only guess it was to prove to himself or others that he wasn't afraid. But there was nothing to be gained, you can run just as fast 3' from the edge and all to be lost with a single slip; cartoon physics only applies to cartoons.
Fear can imply respect. As a white water kayaker, you scout the rapid. Before you go in the ocean, be mindful. Stay seat belted in the plane, you only have to see someone's head hit the overhead bin hard once to get the idea. These examples pale when I consider that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
Fear can be irrational. How many of us have a story about being terrified by something and not even sure why? And because it can be irrational, fear mongers use it to manipulate us: the convoy is coming from a sh*th*le country, bad, they are animals, will destroy our way of life. They will take our jobs, the same "take this job and shove it" we were complaining about at the bar yesterday.
In stock investing they have the Volatility Index, (VIX), in society I think we need a Fear Index, (FIX). January 13 Kathy showed me her phone, there was an incoming missile alert. I used to work in the field, shook my head said some poor schmuck hit the wrong button. She kept on with her bible study, I kept on with what I was doing. I had no idea none, that people would be afraid, that they thought these were their last minutes.
Here is the aha moment, catch it. For that hour, people were in crushing fear. Three months later, that will be a ghost, at least most of the time, else 99% of humanity would be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. But, that natural regeneration also means on of the hardest things to understand about ourselves is what we are truly afraid of.
Try it now. Can you remember being afraid? If you can remember, is it vivid, or is it faded and academic? For me it is the latter, but the pattern is still there, ready to spring back to life.
In each coming election both parties are going to try to manipulate us with fear: they will take our guns, our jobs, our children, our right to choice. They will take away what you've worked for, what heroes died for.
I'll never be a mental verbal kung fu perceptor master, but I am trying to teach my brain to identify when people are trying to influence me including by fear. One rule of thumb that is helping me, if the politician that is trying to make me afraid has a net worth of over a million, (or won't release the net worth), I discount what they are saying, If they had that many treasures to lose and whatever they are selling as a fearcycle was a valid problem, they'd be busy trying to plug the dam, or whatever, instead of selling it to me.
1 John 4:18 NLT is one of those Mount Everest Bible verses, right up there with "consider it all joy"; yeah right! I may have 60 gazillion steps to go, but the word of the LORD does not return void.
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Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
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The next post in this series is holiness.
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