#@!& Fear

One of the best words of advice I’d ever received came from my old Youth Pastor. I had been talking to him about some stress in my life — upcoming marriage, my ministry in the Body of Christ, college — take your pick. They all stemmed from fear in my life.

(I’m not talking about “suddenly being afraid” which is a normal, physical reaction — I’m talking about a tangible, sustained “fear”.)

Fear. A four-letter word. Not that big of a word, really. But, the emotion and stalling that’s tied to this word, massive.

Fear binds. Fear derails. Fear scares. Fear questions. Fear doubts. Fear runs. Fear wastes time. Fear controls. Fear paralyzes. Fear is bad.

The Pastor said two words to help me “handle” fear in my life:

[swear word] Fear.

That’s it. The [swear word] I’ll leave up for discussion, but the point was right on target.

What’s fear doing in my life? No — what’s fear doing running my life? That’s right. At that time, it seemed in every corner of my life fear had made itself a home. Fear. That unshakable, I just can’t get this and What’s wrong with me thought process. F-E-A-R.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
— 2 Timothy 1:7

Living in fear is an absolute waste of time. Fear leads us to worry and stress and gets us all tied up into knots.

Wouldn’t it be a better use of time to flex our spirit of power and love and of a sound mind instead? With life as an adventure, this attitude toward fear could come second nature to us as Christians!