Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Fear Less (not Fearless).

I am always fascinated when reading about how, during the World Wars, Nations used military aircraft to drop propaganda leaflets over their intended targets to incite fear in the target before attacking. The PsyWarrior website has an amazing collection of such leaflets (http://www.psywarrior.com/B52leaflets.html). Often these stories end with the advancing forces overthrowing the towns or villages with minimum force as the inhabitants have been paralyzed by fear of their seemingly mighty opponents.

There's a good article on Fear and Control on the Under One Roof website (http://www.under-one-roof.net/spiritual/fear-control.html) and you can find many more resources on how fear makes us behave if you simply Google it.

The bottom line of it all, and my motivation for creating this blog, is to encourage myself, but also you, the reader, to consider what role fear is playing in the way you live out your life:
  • What is "good" and "bad" fear? Is there a difference?
  • What is negative fear making you do, or not do?
  • How is negative fear affecting your interactions with others? 
  • What is negative fear holding you back from? 
And most importantly: How can I limit the damaging impact of irrational or negative fear in my life?

You will notice the blog is called Fear Less, and not Fearless. I do not think all fear is bad or unreasonable, but certainly the way you and I are bombarded by the Fearmongers cannot be healthy for us? But I'm getting ahead of myself...

What do you consider rational, or irrational fear? Is there such thing as "good" and "bad" fear? 


2 comments:

  1. I respect and appreciate that you started this blog Nick... I’ll start with the below response:

    I fear less because I made this my own...
    “You who sit down in the High God’s presence, spend the night in Shaddai’s shadow, Say this: “ GOD, you’re my refuge. I trust in you and I’m safe!” That’s right—he rescues you from hidden traps, shields you from deadly hazards. His huge outstretched arms protect you— under them you’re perfectly safe; his arms fend off all harm. Fear nothing—not wild wolves in the night, not flying arrows in the day, Not disease that prowls through the darkness, not disaster that erupts at high noon. Even though others succumb all around, drop like flies right and left, no harm will even graze you. You’ll stand untouched, watch it all from a distance, watch the wicked turn into corpses. Yes, because GOD ’s your refuge, the High God your very own home, Evil can’t get close to you, harm can’t get through the door. He ordered his angels to guard you wherever you go. If you stumble, they’ll catch you; their job is to keep you from falling. You’ll walk unharmed among lions and snakes, and kick young lions and serpents from the path.”
    ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭91:1-13 (MSG)

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    1. Thanks for that, Johann. One's Faith certainly helps one realize that there is a bigger picture, and that life here is temporal, which gives hope and fosters courage in the face of adversity. I think you'll like the next post ;)

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