Be Not Afraid

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It's probably just the current events of my life, but I find myself in a linguistic frame of mind these days. Even as I help some learn English, others are teaching me Mandarin. (I've come to the conclusion that you need to try and teach English to a non-English speaker to fully appreciate what a crazy language it is, but I digress.) I'm fascinated with vocabulary--with words and their meaning--and the delicate and dangerous nature of communication within and between cultures.

Additionally, the recent reposting of You Have No Fear Anymore has me ruminating again on the multiple times that Jesus implored his listeners to be not afraid. (Did you notice the hyperlinks at the end of that post?) This seemed to be a recurring theme with Jesus, and a necessary admonition for his followers. Those of us who count ourselves among that company would do well to pay attention.

And so the confluence of these factors formed my reality yesterday as I read the latest post on Michael Hyatt's blog. Why Courage Requires Fear is a guest post by Jared Latigo.

It's a good post. Jared proposes that if courage is the willingness to act in spite of our fear, then it follows that courage is not the absence of fear, but instead actually requires fear. It stands to reason; you can't demonstrate courage unless you first feel fear. Makes sense to me. I'm sure many of us have heard variations on this concept before. Generally, I like the idea, but yesterday morning, to my surprise, it didn't sit well with me.

If you'll forgive my left brain for a moment--he doesn't come out as much as he used to, but he's still around--lets look at this mathematically:

 

fear
+
courage
+
the situation
that is scaring us
=
where we are at 

 

That's a mess of factors and emotions.

It seems to me that what Jesus was proposing was a much cleaner equation:

fear
+
courage
+
the situation
that is scaring us
=
where we are at 

Be not afraid.

Here's the question I'm tabling for our consideration, yours and mine. Is courage a thing, like fear, or is it something else? Not the absence of fear, as has already been stated, but perhaps the other side of fear.

I'm thinking of Evey again, and those gut-wrenching scenes from V For Vendetta where she is 'locked' in her cell. She was terrified. Those of you who have seen the film will recall the notes passed into her cell. Courage didn't get her through, love did. She was terrified... Until she wasn't.

Perhaps "love your neighbour" and "be not afraid" are related, and part of a larger program.

You have no fear anymore. You are completely free.

Be not afraid.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Jesus was telling us to "suck it up" or to "get over it." Rather, I think it was more like, "See it through. Remember and refocus on who you really are, on who I am, and be not afraid."

Just semantics? I think there is more here.

What do you think?

Comments

[jared]

I see your point. It's a very good response and you're definitely right that it's a different approach. Here's where I think we are looking at it differently.

Jesus recognized that fear is something that we have as an emotion. Fear is of the flesh though so it's important for us to push it out and replace it with something. Maybe that something is courage...maybe it's just the situation at hand.

I think it depends on when you consider the start of the situation is. If I consider the start of the situation after I've gotten over the fear, then fear is not in the equation. But if the start of it is when I'm afraid, then it requires us to be courageous to move into the next part of the equation.

Your model is great. And definitely something I whole heartedly agree with. But I think it requires both models and only after we recognize Jesus' power can we accept and move into the second equation.

That's my point of view anyway. Good conversation going on here, thanks for digging in. It's all in point of view and I don't think there's a wrong answer :D

C ya.

[Mike]

I appreciate the comment Jared, as I did the original post.

After posting this yesterday I then received an email with the following message:

...fears are nothing more than states of mind.

Napoleon Hill said that, and he was right. The moment you move into fear over something ask yourself, "Why am I making this real? What is there inside of me that drives me to do this?"

There is a huge difference between fear and caution. Caution moves forward with care, fear stands still, paralyzed. Avoid paralysis at all cost. It is not good for the soul -- and it gets you nowhere.

~ Neale David Walsch

I think there's a lot of truth in there as well. Fear stops us in our tracks, and Jesus seems to want us to keep going. Fascinating subject.