In my last post I Am Not I basically just listed a bunch of things that I have been struggling with lately - things that I have been using to define myself. After I wrote it, I hesitated to even post it because there’s something scary about listing your biggest flaws and insecurities on the internet for all to see. But I found that there’s also something incredibly freeing about it.
I think freedom and fear go hand in hand sometimes. We can get so used to the prisons we find ourselves trapped in that it actually seems like a better option to stay there than to venture out into something we don’t know or can’t control. And that, my friends, is a very distorted perception of reality. One that I often suffer from. I have a feeling I’m not alone in this.
I don’t think fear is a bad thing. There are the obvious examples like not doing things that could harm us because we’re afraid of getting hurt, but that’s not even what I’m talking about it. I’m thinking more about the growth we experience when we face our fears, the character that is developed when we refuse to let that fear make our decisions for us, and the freedom we experience when we finally step out and do whatever it was we were so afraid of.
So I think fear can be a good thing – if we respond to it correctly. It’s a bad thing when we look at it as a wall that we keep running into over and over again or as something that limits us from living the life we want to live. But it’s a good thing when we allow it to propel us to overcome the things that keep us down.
I guess that means it’s all about perspective. The older I get, the more I learn that it is ALWAYS about perspective.
Filed under: God, Life, Reflections
Soooooo true.
Great stuff, Jen. I think fear necessarily limits freedom. When fear becomes the motivator of inaction it preempts freedom. We are all vulnerable to fear and as a result are often victims of our own devices or worse, exploited by others.