What are you afraid of? What really strikes a chord of fear within you? Recently I was visiting with my friend Tamiko as she was caring for another friend's child . Being a typical 2 1/2 year old boy, all he wanted to talk about that afternoon was bugs and spiders and snakes. She smiled and went along with his choice of conversation topic, agreeing with him and even sharing some spider facts with him. Then he had the great idea for her to draw pictures for him. He was so excited, and so Tamiko got to work drawing spiders. But then he kept insisting that she draw snakes, too. She tried her best to talk him out of it. She really did. She kept drawing his attention back to the spiders, showing him how she had even drawn them with 8 legs. But he wasn't swayed. He was persistent. He wanted a snake.
What the poor little fellow didn't know was that Tamiko is scared of snakes. Terrified. Even ones drawn on paper. But when she realized that her attempts to talk him out of drawing snakes were falling on deaf ears, she eventually gave in and quickly sketched one out on the paper for him. Now you may be thinking, "How silly for a grown woman to be afraid of a drawing of a snake." But I would suggest that you not be so quick to judge. Fear is fear. It is very real and very different for each of us. What scares me and stops me in my tracks may not even cause you to blink. And your biggest fear may seem silly to someone else. But don't underestimate that, while different, they are very real indeed for each of us.
They can be overwhelming at times - even to the point of becoming a debilitating and destructive force in our lives. You may not have a fear of snakes and may not think twice about drawing one on paper, but for Tamiko, that fear is very real. But this is the greatest part about Tamiko - she knows what her fear is. She sees it. She recognizes it. She has claimed it. And she makes a point to stay away from it as much as possible (until a cherub faced 2 year old wants her to draw pictures).
All of my fears aren't as obvious to me as Tamiko and her snakes. Some I didn't even realize I had. As I was thinking about and writing out my personal fears recently, I was surprised to see how long my list grew - and how quickly. Heights...Tight Spaces...Large crowds...Public speaking...Making the wrong decision...Not living up to my potential... One seemed to bleed over into another and before I knew it, I seemed to be afraid of more things than I wasn't. My list was as long as my arm.
Oftentimes we go through life not knowing what scares us. We may find ourselves in the same situations over and over again simply because we're scared to try anything different. Or we may find ourselves trying something new every other day because we're scared of becoming stagnant. Our level of comfort doesn't want to be stretched, and so we stay. Or the comfortable rut scares us, and so we leave. Once we realize fear is the driving force and the reason for keeping us reliving the same repetitive scenarios, we can then work to overcome our fears and see drastic changes in our lives.
Overcoming our fears - whether it be snakes or heights or success or change - can take exhaustive effort on our part. People spend hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of dollars on therapists, hypnotists, physicians and pharmacists all in attempts to seek help in dealing with and overcoming their fears. The largest step in the process of course is naming it and claiming it. Once you know what you're afraid of, then you can set out working to overcome it and get on to living a more abundant life.
No matter what you're afraid of, I encourage you today to stop and study that fear. If its something that is causing you to take a back seat to your life or is holding you back from doing what you want and need to be doing, take a hard look at what it would take for you to overcome it. Lay it down. Walk away from it. And get on with the business of living your life without it.
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
~ 2 Timothy 1:7
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