Day 2: How Fear Cripples

Fear doesn't play fair. It finds your weaknesses and it sets up camp.

When you're a child your fears tend to be external. The dark. Thunderstorms. Scary stories. As an adult our struggles with fear are much more internal. We worry about money. We stress over our children’s education. We compare ourselves {income, looks, clothes, I.Q., music taste} to other people. We fret that something will happen to us or our families. We lie sleepless at night because of these fears, but we respond to friend’s “How are you?” inquiries with “Fine.” answers. We may hide our fears on the inside, but the crippling effects of fear always show up on the outside in the way that we live our lives and the things that we pursue.

If you asked most of my friends they probably would not define me as someone that is particularly fearful. I’ve climbed mountains…literally. I’ve lived in the third world...during a refugee crisis. I help women give birth (I'm sure that very thing scares more than a few of you). I've given birth to a 9+lb baby normally.  

I do brave things. The truth is that I have brave moments in this sea of fear.

Though I have brave moments the times that fear has crippled me have been pretty brutal. Satan knows our Achilles’ heel in terms of fear. The husband and I were “dating” (that is a long story, but just accept the quotation marks for now) and he was supposed to meet me somewhere. He was late. He didn’t call. I was sure he was dead. I was an emotional wreck. You don’t have to look very far back to find the experiential roots of that fear. That experience taught my soon-to-be husband that he always needs to call. That experience also revealed some ugly dis-trust of God in my heart. I was happy. God knew it. He must have plans to take that away from me.

Fear cripples not just our abilities, but also our relationships; my relationship with God and my (now) husband if I allow it to grip me. If I am afraid of something then I won’t fully engage or enter into the present. Fear can blind us to the here and now.

How has fear affected your relationships? 

Tomorrow: Gripping Fear: How I Realized I’m Afraid of Everything