Fear

Fear I’ve been engaging in an online role playing game and I have a character who is in a situation that would have most normal people terrified. He’s a human limo driver for some vampires and the lady vamp is not particularly keen on him. A big part of the game is driving one another to write mo’ betta and I’m just not bringing out the fear in him.

That got me to thinking, what am I afraid of and are the things I fear instilling a healthy sense of fear in me? Or am I reacting like this character and not feeling it like I should? Is there such a thing as a healthy level of fear in believers? We are told time and again that we should fear the lord.

I am afraid of not making it financially. I’m afraid of letting down my family. I’m afraid that I’ll never “make it” as a writer. There are a ton of insecurities I have that fill me with fears in social and work settings. What should I do with that?

Steve Sensenig and his lovely wife Stevella (I don’t recall her real name, oh wait Anya Christine I think) talk about some of that in their recent podcast. We need to have faith and trust God for our provision and in other areas. Does that faith eliminate fear though? Should it?

When I’m afraid sometimes I take it to God in prayer. Other times I suffer through it. I can’t honestly say that every time I’ve taken it to God that it’s worked out, or that every time I haven’t, it hasn’t. I can say that internalizing that fear, keeping it bottled up, isn’t healthy.

If you’re a person of faith you should take it to God. He wants you to tell him what your fears are. He wants to calm you and encourage you. Certainly he knows what they are without you telling him (yeah I heard that question before it was asked), but I think part of the process of working through fears is to make them known, get them out in the open. Fears don’t do very well in the light of day.

It won’t all go away though. Fear serves a useful purpose in small doses. It gets your body up and alert. If you learn to deal with it in healthy ways you can channel that into useful energy. It can drive you to work harder and can end in success, as long as you don’t let the fear control you.

What do you fear? How do you deal with it?

pic by Andy Carvin

  • http://spiritwolf32.wordpress.com/ Tracy (spiritwolf32)

    One fear that I have is that I won’t know real happiness before my time is up in the world.

    My writing is one way I escape from my days. I live through my characters most of the time. I even do this with my character Ashley on Escaping Reality. When I write, it is like a dream of mine, so to speak. Things I can’t do; my characters can.

    The point is, I’m not really happy with where my life is; and what is going on in my life (With a few exceptions). I am trying to change things but it seems like such a slow progress. It seems like I am fighting to climb a hill that at a 90 degree angle and I have no way to get to the top.

    As for my faith. That is always a struggle for me. I believe in God and I know he is there. He has answered two of my prayers in a very out there way and only he knew I asked. I was alone when I said those two prayers. But, I still get confused with things. There are so many things types of religion and opinions that I get lost and I get so confused. I will be working on that part of my life for some time.

  • Maree

    We are taught by the Bible that one of the techniques that God may use to purify his people is adversity. God also may call us to do things that are decidedly uncomfortable and at times will draw us into very unpleasant territory. When I read act I read about their being a real cost of following Christ. Is this a reason for fear, absolutely. These I agree are things where prayer is important.

    I do not however believe that we need to fear God himself. Yes I believe that his power is terrifying as is his need for holiness. But this is where Christ comes in, whose blood is the mechanism by which we are set right with God and the reason that we do not need to fear God’s justice and judgment.

  • Scott

    Tracy – Good change is often slow. If you’re working on making changes to make your life better then be patient, it will come. Of course I would encourage you to find happiness in things that you have now. You have friends (in person and on line), a hobby or two, and school. Take joy in those things. We are blessed to live in this country and have what we do even if it doesn’t seem like much.

  • Scott

    Senor Vega – That’s a mighty big if, but I will say if it’s not true in all cases it might be true in some.

    On the game there are times where I rush posts and don’t proof them so my character doesn’t come across as clearly as I’d like. That’s the advantage with being the sole writer in a project.

    Fear does have positive consequences provided it doesn’t rule your life.

    And what you say regarding fearing the lord is generally what is understood, but there’s some real fear too. We fear what we don’t understand and God is a hard one to understand sometimes.

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