Living without Fear
Have you ever met someone whose default setting seems to be “Drive fast and take chances”? Some people seem to live for the next adrenaline boost. Makes me wonder if they have an adrenaline addiction. I don’t think they live this way because they don’t feel afraid. I suspect it is because feeling fear gives them that boost of adrenaline that they have become dependent on…almost like an energy drink.
Understanding Fear
I believe there is a kind of fear that is healthy, and another type of fear that is crippling. There may be similarities between the two, but they have profoundly different effects on our health and well-being. Healthy fear serves to protect us from harm. We learn to avoid things that have hurt us in the past. When we encounter situations which remind us of past pain it often triggers a feeling of fear. This is not unnatural and is typically not unhealthy. There is a kind of fear that I believe is unhealthy, because it prevents us from living to our full potential.
The Root of all Fear
At the root of all our fear is the fear of death. How we think about death and dying typically will dictate whether we live in fear of death or make our peace with it. The one thing we can all be certain of is that that 100% of people eventually die, and that knowledge can be terrifying if we are uncertain of what lies on the other side of death.
A Brief History of Fear
Was there ever a time when you had no fear? Think about that for a moment. I have very few rather sporadic memories of my early childhood. The memories I do have make me think that life taught me to be fearful of certain things. For instance, falling into a pig pen from a hayloft in a barn, taught me to be fearful of heights. My parents taught me to be fearful of strangers, particularly if they were not from our German Mennonite culture.
The First Fear
The bible first records human fear in the book of Genesis 3:10. This takes place right after the first man and first woman disobey their Creator by eating from the forbidden tree. Prior to that event, the man and woman walked with God in the garden each day, they had no knowledge of what fear was. It was only after taking that step of disobedience that they hide themselves when they hear God coming, and when he asks why they hid, the man replies, “I was afraid because I was naked.” Apparently prior to the forbidden fruit event they didn’t know they were naked, and did’t care, and had no fear…of anything. After eating the fruit they also were reminded of the warning that God had given them earlier that the moment they did they would “surely die”. The snake that talked them into eating the fruit had assured them that they would not die, but rather that they would become like God knowing good from evil…which was partially true.
Why We Feel Fear
Perhaps the reason we feel fear when we think about death is at least in part because we feel “out of relationship” with our Creator.