Ever wonder why we are such emotional beings. Even those, like myself, who think they have perfected the art of not being emotional, still are. We just happen to not show them, or worse yet process them. There are several basic emotions that I have found important to look at.
Fear, Joy, Love, and peace are four of the most common emotions termed in the Christian sphere and from my experience the most misunderstood. Lets look at the emotion FEAR first.
Most recently in my life I have experienced this emotion. Now instead of walking it out and admitting I was afraid I turned inside myself and found a little cave to hide in most commonly called distraction. I wasn’t processing the emotion so it is this huge elephant in my life. Popping up as I walk from my car to my front door at night, in my room when I turn out the light and even worse while I slept. So yes I must admit that I am an emotional being just like everyone else.
So what is it about this particular emotion that drives us to stuff it down and not deal with it. To help us figure this out we must return to the definition of it.
According to Wikipedia.com “Fear is an emotional response to tangible and realistic dangers. Fear should be distinguished from anxiety, an emotion that often arises out of proportion to the actual threat or danger involved, and can be subjectively experienced without any specific attention to the threatening object.”
This definition only gives us a basis to start explaining how this emotion plays out in our everyday life. We can know the terminology by mere memorization but how is it lived out? Continuing with wikipedia’s explanation of fear we see that, “Fear can be described by different terms in accordance with its relative degrees. Personal fear varies extremely in degree from mild caution to extreme phobia and paranoia. Fear is related to a number of emotional states including worry, anxiety, terror, fright, paranoia, horror, panic (social and personal), persecution complex and dread.”
These emotional responses are not the only way that fear can be expressed. For many fear can also affect the subconscious and unconscious mind, most notably through nightmares. I would say that for me my fears can also be imagined, causing me to spiral into side effects that can also be imagined.
In order to identify this unhealthy root of fear in our lives we must be able to first identify causes and behaviors in ourselves. Most fear is usually connected to pain. Pain caused by physical injury or most common rejection from family, peers, or opposite sex. For many fear is used as survival mechanism that is ingrained in us. We are not even aware that we retreat into it.
The reality is that fear exist and if not brought into the light can cause physically and spiritual damage. "One of the things which danger does to you after a time is -, well, to kill emotion. I don't think I shall ever feel anything again except fear. None of us can hate anymore - or love."---- Graham Greene - The Confidential Agent (1939) It is important to identify that you are experiencing this emotion but we can not pitch out tent and give up. We must identify and bring to light our struggles or live a life that is bound by the enemies chains.
Now you may be thinking several things, “Well, yes so I am afraid and deal with fear but you don’t understand I can’t talk about it and do all that emotional counseling stuff.” Or you may even be thinking, “Okay, so I have to deal with it but how?” You are probably aware of the saying that the first step is admitting it. You just took your first step. You admitted that you struggle in this area and now it is time to bring it to the light, not with your own strength and timing but with the Lords.
We can not handle everything by our own strength. We need the only being that has the bigger picture and will not let us fall apart. He will hold us through the nights that are so dark and will push us to stand up to our fears with his strength. Ambrose Redmoon had it correct when he said,
“Courage is not the absence of fear,
but rather the judgement that
something else is more
important than fear”
“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.” Anne Frank was a women who lived through a season in the world when fear gripped each person personally, and nationally. Sirens and pounds on the door were things to live in fear of. One never knew what each day would hold. But even still this women choose to live these dark days drinking from the streams of living water found only in our heavenly Father.
For me it is not a physical war that binds me to these fears but instead like Marianne Williamson describes in here famous poem.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
fabulous, talented? Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of the Spirit. Your playing small
does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that
other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of the Spirit
that is within us. It is not just in some of us;
it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”
So as of today this is my understanding of just one of those emotions mentioned above. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT:
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
H. JACKSON BROWNE:
Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT:
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
MARILYN FERGUSON:
Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.
C.S. LEWIS
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
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