Faith in Fear

My children had been wanting to watch ‘The Rise of the Guardians’ for a long time, and so when we finally got a hold of it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was it an enjoyable storyline, but it seemed to be dripping with profound insights and tidbits of truth.  It’s depiction on the effect of one’s belief was especially powerful to me.  In brief - Jack Frost, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy, the sand man, and the boogie man were personified symbols of a child’s belief in an abstract concept – fun, wonder, hope, light, dreams, and fear.  What a child believed in is what became real to him. 

When belief was strong, it strengthened or increased the size and abilities of the characters.  Also, some objects of belief affected the strength and abilities of the others.  For instance, believing in the boogie man, weakened the positive effects of hope, joy, etc. of the other characters - sometimes to extinction.  I thought the movie makers did an excellent job at portraying the power of belief. 

I’ve heard it said that Faith is the opposite of Fear.  But now I’m considering that fear may be the object of our faith, our belief.  Just as believing in the boogie man (fear) can diminish or destroy believing in hope, or light, or dreams.  And we can choose to have faith in fear - which debilitates our growth, or faith in something more empowering. 

A friend of mine pointed out the definition of fear she had discovered while browsing through the bible dictionary.

                Fear… something unworthy of a child of God, something that “perfect love casteth out”.  The first effect of Adam’s sin was that he was afraid.  Sin destroys the feeling of confidence God’s child should feel in a loving Father and produces instead a feeling of shame and guilt. 

–Bible Dictionary

That discovery was a powerful insight to me.   ‘Unworthy of a child of God’?  It is below a disciple of Christ to operate in fear?  I guess it makes sense when you think about, but evidently I had never really thought about it before.  

Weren’t we taught that fear is one of the innate emotions that one experiences, the same as feeling happy or sad. Doesn’t the dictionary define fear as a survival mechanism occurring in response to a perceived threat, pain, or evil –you know, the fight of flight response.   I’d never considered it as a choice before.  That makes me think of the preview for the movie ‘Afterearth’. 

In 2 Timothy 1:7 it says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”.  Fear is disempowering; fear is hateful; fear is illogical.  So obviously, fear is not of God.  And what brings about this lack of confidence in God – Sin.  Fear is the byproduct of sin.    

For the past umpteen number of years, I’ve struggled with insecurity.  My comfort zone was in being invisible.  I didn’t feel I had anything of value to offer to anyone outside of my husband and children, so I was stuck in wallpaper status.   I’d been operating in fear.  I don’t consider myself a great sinner but obviously I had put my faith in fear rather than in my Savior – which would have produced the confidence I lacked.   I love thinking about the following quote:

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, talented, and fabulous?  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God 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.  

 – Marianne Williamson

That is a beautiful and powerful paragraph.  But still the focus is on the fear of the perceived results, rather than the confidence of desired results.

                                         Where Focus Goes, Energy Flows and That Thing Grows

As I put my energy in hiding myself, protecting myself, or even in allowing others to shine by my playing small, I don’t have the energy to produce the results I really want.  Faith in Fear is self-sabotaging. 

Discussing this concept with my daughter, she pointed out that fear is only concerned with the future tense.  We can only fear things that are a perceived or anticipated result.  If one is truly 100% present, there is no fear. 

So, in my discovery of truth concerning fear, I agree with the makers of 'The Rise of the Guardians'.  What I believe in, becomes real to me - expect it, anticipate it, live it.  And eliminate the fear by not heeding it.