Fear, Fear Itself

If Fear is: False Evidence Appearing Real, then we have to stare straight into Fear’s face– laugh at it, and run toward the better and brighter things! 

At the 1933 inaugural presidential speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the American people, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”  Link to FDR’s entire inaugural speech: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/froos1.asp

What fears do you have?

My biggest fear is to be unprepared. I have reoccurring dreams of being at the top of an enormous, over vert, and unsafe halfpipe. I’m a retired pro snowboarder who is unpracticed for 20 years. In my dreams, I have to compete in my current state against the top riders in the world, completely thrown into this contest situation without practice. And I can’t back out. Sometimes my dream ends before I take my run, and sometimes I take my run and go for the tricks that I haven’t done since my pro career, and it works out just ok. I feel so relieved to wake up, but my body feels like it experienced real trauma. 

I’ve often been in circumstances where I am unprepared, and it’s a learn-as-I-go type situation. I have failed in reality, but I’ve learned to approach those spontaneous situations in a way where I don’t try to pretend like I know what I’m doing. It works so much better than faking it. Of course, I take preparation very seriously when I see what’s coming. Training is key to success. 

I do exercise and recommend one type of fear. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” 

We were all thrown a curveball with this pandemic, but I did feel somewhat prepared in my spirit. I had spent intense time in prayer the months prior. I am happy to share how I experienced a warning, but it’s personal. The key to this story is that I felt looming chaos before the pandemic happened. I didn’t know what that would look like, but I resolved not to be afraid. And as this pandemic endures, I continue to expect the unexpected, and it makes all the difference. 

On the first day of lockdown in America in March 2020, my husband Dave experienced all of the Covid symptoms and was in bed for ten days. Although we never had him initially tested, he did get a positive antibody test result six months after, proving he did indeed have Covid. I was not concerned with social distancing as I cared for him, and even as he tried his best to not hack his cough all over me, that didn’t work so well. Focusing on everything positive during this time was essential for me. I turned off the news and took daily walks with inspiring music to decompress for an hour away from my care-taking duties. My mom always told me how my grandmother used to sit her outside in the sun whenever she was sick, as her mom disinfected her room. So, I forced Dave to get a daily dose of sun, while I cleaned and made chicken soup. Later, I discovered vitamin D is a massive factor in strengthening our immune system.

I don’t have a problem putting faith in the positive, so I said out loud, “I refuse to get this stupid sickness.” Hey, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain! And of course, I prayed, and took tons of vitamins. I felt run down for three days and then got better.

Fear has severe implications for our health

Fear is a choice. The link includes medical facts about the topic. https://www.ajmc.com/view/the-effects-of-chronic-fear-on-a-persons-health

2 Tim 1:7 says something exciting, which coordinates with medical facts. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind.”  

If we choose fear, we can compromise receiving one or all three of God’s attributes. We either can’t receive God’s healing power, and/or we won’t act in love, and/or we won’t be able to make good, wise, intelligent, and even common sense decisions.

That scares me. It makes me fear, fear itself.