Fear Not but for the Lord

Humans have fear. Fear sometimes holds us back, or pushes us forward. But if we were to identify our fear factor and the main reason we have such fear, we might be able to overcome the fear and move on. On a positive side, fear exists to make us think twice before acting, to ensure we're on the right track. But sometimes we pondered for too long and we spent too much time hesitating on our next move that we're stunted from growing. Fear mainly due to the sense of insecurity, sometimes due to anticipation of bad consequences, and many other reasons.

Insecurity due to lack of understanding towards a particular object are the main reason why we're afraid of a lot of things in our life. Such as the lack of understanding towards snakes, snails, crocoaches, directions, escalator, autoclave, replacing light bulbs, frogs, water, blood, and etc. Thus it has hindered a lot of us from exploring new things in our life - jungle trekking, research, travelling, close contact with snakes and frogs.

The sense of insecurity also includes how we're afraid of what other people think of us judging by the way we behave. We feel insecure if they have negative impression on us, and it may in turn affects the current relationship we have - with discrimination, alienatation, public humiliation and etc. And we're afraid of loosing our dignity, pride and reputation, where our glossy image is tainted by judgemental comments. Together with lack of confidence in oneself, one may not dare to start a conversation with strangers, camwhore, or express oneself freely altogether.

Fear also due to the bad consequences we anticipate may or may not occur, and how these consequences may affect our daily activities. One example is the fear of having halucination after watching horror movie, that one may not dare to enter toilet cubicle at night, or look into the mirror while brushing teeth. Or one might be afraid of height and dare not go above level 4 in a building, the level where all the goodies are on sale *ahem*. One may fear to look into the deep dark eyes for fear of what one anticipated to find - ignorance, hatred, dissapointment, demand, discrimination and etc.

To overcome fear, we have to be able to recognise and acknowledge its existence, and then the reason for such feeling. By doing so, we learn how to overcome it by hitting the right spot - either increasing one's understanding towards such fear, or convince oneself that others' opinion don't really matter much in things which doesn't concern them. To identify the reason for insecurity or how the bad consequences may affect us, we have to really think what matters to us more - such as our pride VS freedom to express ourselves, right to experience new things VS comfort zone.

It is sad to know sometimes we've been hold back by our fears so much that we didn't go far enough to prove a point, or to experience the wonders in life. Fear for nothing but the Lord,

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit
of power, of love and of self-discipline.

[2Timothy 1:7]

Smile,
Cher Linn