“Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself”
J.K. Rowling
One of the most powerful, most counterintuitive thoughts
that’s ever been shared with me came from a wise woman friend of mine. In fact
it’s changed the deeply engrained habits of my fearful mind.
Fear goes to extremes. Fear lives within the what if’s. An
innocent inquiry about the future turns into a breeding ground for anxiety.
In one of my more recent fretful battles, words of worry
spilling quickly out of my mouth, she looked at me. With loving but frank words
she stated,
Name your worst fears. What IF they come to pass? What’s the worse that could happen?
Could you live with that?
I did NOT want to go there. My worst fears were a dark,
menacing unhappy place. I was not exactly sure what they were, but I knew they
were terrifying.
But I did anyway, bracing myself. What I found was really
quite surprising. Those extremes, those what if’s that were a stronghold were
what I walked right up to, inspected and walked away oddly unintimidated. IF
indeed my worst fears come to pass (IF), I discovered that yes; yes I could
live with that. No, it wouldn’t be easy. Yes, it would be scary. But I could
live. Hallelujah, I would cling to the promised presence of my Lord, and I
could live.
It was then that fear let its slip show. It rapidly loses
its power when it is called out by name.
Call it what it is: Fear of abandonment, fear of loss of control, fear
of disapproval.
So I flip on the light, get bossy and tell my fear what it
really is, and in a small way practice being a conqueror as fear shrinks away
from me, powerless.
No comments:
Post a Comment