What to Fear Most

Fear is one of the greatest emotional strongholds that flatten the energy of mankind. It breaks the might of armies and able men. It brings kings to their knees and withers the pride of the haughty. 

 

In a way fear is the greatest factor that lays bare man’s confidence. Existing at the subconscious, it redirects itself in many forms. Out of fear men become suspicious of their species. As it haunts them throughout life, they want to express it in less embarrassing ways. This is especially the case with the ranks of the famous. Since they possess things which bring the attention of others, they resort to constant forms of expressing their fears. They surround their lives with guards, friendly crew and they lavish their wealth in otherwise undeserved security measures. The rich, the powerful, the important also do the same.

Nobody is immune from the attacks of fear. The degrees vary, according to the self consciousness with ones significance. To put in a linear spectrum, the degree varies from the fearless “madman” to the unstable “dictator”. In between dwell all the varieties of fears.

 

What do you fear most? It depends upon the degree of obsession one has with oneself. The narcissist doesn’t have time with the issues of others and with common issues of life. Thus he is fearful of the earth he is standing on. He bothers himself with the notion that he is always under threat of calamity. Thus he has less life outside himself. If only he remembers that his life is but “a flash of a second” perishable in a twinkle.

 

We have also the completely “other” conscious who doesn’t know his existence in this world. This is whom we called the “madman”. He is un-cognizant of any sensible life that his living is unintelligible to the “ordinary” man. He remembers himself only physiologically, when he is hungry. This kind of man has no sense of fear in the normal sense of the term “fear”.

 

Where does your life lie? Of course in between, but what do you fear of?

 

As I said, anyways we have fears all around. And there seems to be plenty of reasons to fear. But what is our fear composed of? May be we fear of being attacked by enemies. May be we fear of being exposed. May be we fear of unknown dangers. May be we fear of financial calamity, of failure. May be we fear of war breaking out where we are. May be we fear of robbery, terrorism, sexual assault, arrest. All these fears are grounded. They are legitimate. But they only lead us to temporary actions and never amount to the development of our character. They don’t lead us to commitments and moral resolves. They are able to lead us to quick fix.

If we become excessively conscious of these issues we lose the big picture. We become obsessed and hence our life tends to be flow-less and without direction. You become reactive and your life in a sense looks ad hoc. Since your environment is determining your life, the storms drift you always, and finally you end up slave to your fears. Not surprisingly, narcissist fear is named one of the sins that lead to exclusion from the Kingdom of God and that are factors for being punished with the second death. (Revelations 21:8) Now must the cares of this life so obsess one that in the end one possesses anything but life?

 

I want to tackle the issue of life head on. Instead of answering these fear syndromes, I would rather address the very fabric of my life. I consider rather the rule of the game in its entirety and in its inception.

 

Now I don’t go one sentence without considering what my life does with the essence of fear. What am I brought first to, concerning life? Man I would say shouldn’t fear if his life has just the task of “being”, i.e., existence per se. Rather, for me life has consequence, it has meaning, it has “rules of the game”. Thus fear to me is exchanged with “reverence”. I endear life and its source rather than fear its loss. I begin to make sure that I celebrate its nature and rejoice with its fruits rather than obsess my mind with the calamities that may befall it. Life for me becomes living it in its abundance rather than enduring mishaps.

 

Here is the fear that destroys my other fears: I borrow it from Jesus Christ “fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul.” (     ) This fear is precisely that frees you of all other fears. In other words change your fear of anything to the fear of God and get living as if in a train whose pilot/operator is God.

 

No wonder, the game of life changes the rules set in and become predictable. Here the object of fear is with the best form of fear, and that is reverence. This kind of fear is more to do with honorific, venerating attitude. You know that God is with a quality more fearsome when it comes to the ability to inflict the harshest punishment. But you know also that you can avoid this punitive sense of fear by taking further step in your attitude, a sense of respect. You respect someone not out of fear per se but more, out of his/her worthy quality, out of valuing your relationship with him. With God you fear him as well as value your relationship with him. Here then sets in the wisdom of life.

 

“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1:7)

 

At this stage you have understood what the highest regard for life is. To fear God means to have value for your time in this world and to give a benchmark for the life in the Kingdom. When Jesus put this into allegory, he put this God fearing life the picture of “narrow gate – narrow way”. In living this “narrow way” of life you put your daily living into perspective. You always second guess your decisions and actions. This you do out of giving value to the will of another, namely the will of God. This is the fear that I would give the highest regard for it has power to destroy all other fears. Then whom do you fear most?