I have used the cliché that fear is the opposite of faith. I believe that it is true, but I also know that a cliché can be insulative and demoralizing. People who hear the words, “You have cancer,” have a genuine fear creep into their lives. Saying a cliché to them that “Fear is the opposite of faith, so have faith,” is not helpful and it tells the person that we do not care about them but that our words are correct.
Everyone faces fear. It’s how we move when we are afraid that creates a life of faith and a life of creativity. Too many times in life we get stuck when we are afraid. We stay too long in a job. We stay too long in a relationship. We even stay too long living in a community because we fear moving to a new place. Most of us fear the unknown. What we do not realize is that our fear keeps us from moving forward. We get angry as we watch other people move ahead in life and wonder why we are not getting ahead in life. We have to look introspectively and be honest with ourselves if we are not getting ahead because we are not good at what we do, or if we are not doing what it takes, or if we are afraid. If we are honest, it is the last one that affects the other two.
Jesus never promised us that life would be comfortable and safe. He told us not to fear as he would be with us. This last week I realized that when I was a younger, I jumped and took many risks. As I became older, I became calculated with risk as I believed I was being responsible, but I was not. I became more responsible when I finally took a risk that would benefit others and not just myself. So, how do we jump and take a risk, even if we still have fears? We trust, we pray, we communicate.
We have to trust. First, we have to trust that God has given us the gifts, talents, and provisions for us to take this direction in our lives. As a person who creates writings, I have realized that I had to trust that God has given me this talent and the more I use it, the better it serves people. If I just keep it to myself because I am afraid of what others may think, then I am not trusting the gifts and talents that God has given me, which reveals that I do not trust God because I am revealing that I believe that God did not gift me well. So, I must create and trust. I will mess up and do wrong, but I must always trust the process.
Prayer is an anecdote to fear. The more we pray with specific requests, the more we become fearless and decide that we must move forward. It does not mean that there will not be struggles. It does not mean that there will not be setbacks. It means that we have a God who listens to us and one we can rely on when we are afraid to take the next step. Prayer gives us the strength to keep moving, even when we are afraid.
We must communicate with others. For a long time in my life, I kept my writing to myself that I wanted to write because when I would tell people they would laugh or scoff at my ideas. I didn’t realize that every artisan will encounter that criticism because people who do nothing are jealous of those who do something, so they criticize those who do something. So, I just had to decide to do something. We need to communicate with others our ideas as we may begin to collaborate with other people who can help facilitate our ideas.
We cannot allow fear to rule us. We must follow the dreams that we have. We must trust, pray, and communicate. We must use our gifts and talents for others. We cannot live in fear. So many people are still living in fear and anxiety. In order to thrive as full human beings, fear will hold us back and trap us. We must continue to press forward even with the fear. Then, in the end, we will realize how fear became acts of faith along the way. It is when we reflect on our journey that we will see whether we are driven by faith or by fear. Let us move with faith.
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