F.E.A.R. Not



Fear is an interesting emotion. It protects us from dangerous situations and can help us to not make dumb decisions, but it also can keep us from taking necessary risks that are vital to doing what we know is necessary and a part of our steps forward. When used properly, fear can be life saving as a natural stress response signal to take action. We are wired to survive and our fight, flight and freeze brain responses send a flood of chemical responses to our defense, including cortisol and adrenaline which are meant to happen momentarily and sporadically for protective measures; but if this release becomes engrained and recycled over time, it becomes a life damaging reaction that keeps people stuck, confused and preferring the familiar place of enslavement over the uncertainty of freedom. It shifts from a temporary signal to an entrenched lifestyle. Our brain is “use dependent” so repeated use of toxic stress and fear can become the trained normal to our mindset instead of the refreshing mental renewal God offers each of us, and that cycle comes at a cost.

We can think of fear as an acronym .... F.E.A.R. and based on how we view that acronym will determine how we respond when fear shows up. Some of us will look at F.E.A.R. through a dark lens on life and see very few possibilities when this emotion enters our experiences, and we can perceive F.E.A.R. to mean Forget Everything And Run. Through this dark lens, it may provide temporary relief of escape but it never allows us to solve any problems. Some people may look at F.E.A.R. when the signal arises through dotted glasses. Lenses on life that are dotted with the residue of life’s past experiences that have made the person have a hindered or obstructed view of life. They can’t seem to see past those obstructions, and in moments that open the door for F.E.A.R. to show up on the scene, they look at F.E.A.R. and life as Finding Excuses And Reasons. Now don’t get me wrong, those obstructions, blocked spots, and hindered smudges that cover their perspective on life may have been traumatic and their view is rightly limited, but this perspective will do little to move the person out of the cycle of learned helplessness into the promised place of abundance on the other side of excuses and reasons. Some others may have more ability to see life more fully but their lens of F.E.A.R. have scratches from past hurt and disappointment that have never healed and have begun to diminish expectations for anything other than a poor fate. Although they may try to polish their lenses with new risks and steps of progress, the abrasiveness of past mistakes, failures, and mishaps has this person view F.E.A.R. as Failure Expected And Received.  When this mindset controls the focus of a person, what we expect is what we receive.
Each one of these distorted views of the tool of fear actually help us understand that fear is not just in our head. It actually lives in our body. When fear shifts from life saving as a temporary signal to life damaging as a cycle or way of being, it changes far more than external situations and circumstances. When we become aware of this truth, we can begin to understand why our God would give the command to “fear not” more than 80 times throughout scripture, more often than any other command - life saving instruction. 

When was the last time you did something really scary? The kind of scary that knots your stomach, has your heart racing and your knees knocking. That kind of scary that has you feeling like you have lost all control. Yeah, I had one of those moments in life.  Because of past mistakes and failings, I spent most of my days walking around with the scratched lenses mentioned earlier.  My self worth, competence and capacity was in constant question in my mind. Coming out of years of a toxic work environment, hiding behind workaholic behavior to find my value, I struggled to see, hear or feel God. But I had a plan, for my future - my eye on an Executive position. Yes, that would make me finally feel whole, achieved and enough. When the enemy sets a trap, he sets it well. That “ideal” position was placed in my lap. I quit my current job, ready to start new beginnings with my plan. And before I could even start the job- it disappeared. I had nothing to go back to and nothing to go forward to. Stuck... no money, no job, poor health from a decade of toxic stress and a distorted view of my value, even in God’s eyes. In the middle of my Red Sea moment, I felt trapped and horribly afraid, ashamed, unworthy, and the “I told you so..” began from my scratched lens on life. And in the middle of it all, during a rant with God blaming Him for not going along with MY PLAN, He sat me down through illness and created a window of clarity for me  to break the cycle. And in the quiet from my sick bed, He began to open up my spirit and pour out the vision He had planned for me all along. Not able to do anything except stay in bed, for 10 days, I wrote while He filled my spirit with His Plan. On the eleventh day, the legal documents for my own business arrived at my door and He told me to move forward. Fear not. Stand still. Watch. And watch Him I have, for 3 years now. He has done more with this fragile life than I could have ever imagined. With a change in perspective, you can have a new perspective on F.E.A.R. 

For Everything A Reason

Face Everything And Rise

Faith Erases All Reservations

“Change the way you see things and the things you see will change.” ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

Shift how we view things and what we choose to focus on shifts our direction, our purpose and our perspective on ourselves, our lives and our God. 

~Veirdre Jackson


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