Fear. Anger. Anxiety
There is no blanket like fear to squelch creativity, love and connectedness. There is no wall like anger which holds everyone, including God, at a distance. There is no dike like anxiety to hold back the tide of life. Fear, anger and anxiety are the sirens of modern life which call us to self-absorption, isolation, and self-hatred. They are the distortions that smear our lenses, distorting how we see life and ourselves.
These negative emotions are the unseen drivers of our decisions. They cloud our ability to see what is real and true. They are major distractions to our living our lives as we were created to live—purposefully, meaningfully, connected to all life, in community.
We cannot change until we see the truth of our existence. We can’t let go of fear until we see how fearful we are and how that fear holds us back from living a real life. We can’t release the anger until we know how it has controlled us and kept us from the very things we would love to do and people we’d love to be with. And we can’t see the price we pay for every moment of anxiety until we acknowledge its cost to us—it drains away our best energies.
Once we acknowledge, see and count the cost, there is a chance for us to change. It takes persistence and clear vision, and a lot of healing help from the Lord, but the journey is worth it. With reduced amounts of fear or anger or anxiety we feel lighter and freer. We can hear the murmurings of our soul, which, like the magnetic north pole, would lead us to our true selves. We can access and hear the “still, small voice” of God which, in conjunction with our soul’s agenda, would lead us to a connected, meaningful life using our gifts and talents and challenges to carve out a purposeful existence.
We have to really dial back the power we give these negative emotions until we have unplugged totally. Just because we think something doesn’t make it true. Just because I feel something doesn’t mean it is based in reality. Fear has been my life-long companion. Now I see how much it has limited what I could do and who I could be. Now I see how my bottom-line fear of things never working out for me is really a laugh, because certainly my life has been good, and with lots of challenges, but far beyond anything I could have imagined, given the distorted lens of fear I was using. So there was my fear and there was the reality, but all I could see was what the fear foretold.
Fear, anger and anxiety put our needs at the very center of our lives, way ahead of anyone else’s. They are the fodder of the small self. They control, they distract, they confuse. Contrast that with ways of the larger self: love, connectedness and a broader perspective on our lives. These are the nourishment of the larger self. Our needs are definitely met in the larger self, but not the me-first demands of the small self. God would lead us to our larger selves, the ones not bound by the culture we grew up in, the ones that we were created to be. It only takes our willingness and perseverance in following his lead beyond the fear, the anger and the anxiety.
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Questions to ponder over the week: Do I live in the realm or fear or anger or anxiety? Or do I live in trust in God?
Check out this video on YouTube: “Does the Gospel Serve our Purposes or Do We Serve the Gospel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wryesgONNXQ
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