Life Without Fear
I don’t know about you, but I live a life of scurry, hurry, and worry! I am always stressed about something.
The Bible says “be anxious for nothing.” Incorrectly interpreted, I do just that: I am anxious. For nothing! Yet, I don’t think that’s really what it means…
Recently someone asked me a simple, yet powerful question: “What would you do if you had no fear?”
Maybe you would go back to school. Quit your job. Ask the pretty girl on a date. Forgive someone. Forgive yourself. Move to a new location. It could look like many things in life.
I shot off some silly answer at the time, but I knew I needed to take a hard look at my life and analyze this every so often.
So often I experience “analysis paralysis” in that I overthink things seven times over! [cut to scene from Fiddler on the Roof: “on the other hand… but on the other hand, etc…”] What it boils down to is that I fear that I will fear that I made the wrong choice, so I am afraid to choose. Whether it is a big thing or small, I feel like I would then be judged and face the consequences of making a poor choice from God and man.
What is the opposite or antonym of fear? Is it freedom? Faith? Peace? Assurance?
Perhaps your definition of the opposite of fear would be different than mine, based on what that fear obfuscates or prevents in our lives respectively.
We live in a mix of good and evil. We can experience a mix of fear and faith, or fear and freedom simultaneously, even though we want just the positive.
I think of fear as the acronym “False Evidence Appearing Real,” and thus I tend to think of faith as the positive corollary or antonym to fear. Both fear and faith require taking something that is not and acting on it as though it is. The substance is the same, or lack thereof, but the perspective and thus outcome are very different; one leading to sickness turmoil and anxiety, and the other leading to hope and joy.
“What would you do if you had no fear?”
It is a good thing to think about for us all. The ball is in your court. What will you do?
