The Tyranny of Fear

In 1967, Charles Hummel wrote his classic, The Tyranny of the Urgent. He describes our tendency to forgo the important matters in life in favor of those that scream the loudest at the moment.

Recently I’ve experienced another type of tyranny – fear. One of this week’s “Word of the Day” entries from www.dictionary.com was abulia. Abulia is the loss or impairment of the ability to act or to make decisions. This week’s fear has given me a good dose of abulia.

You see five days ago, we placed our house on the market, the same housing market that's in its worse slump in US history. The same market that has left houses sitting in my once “hot” neighborhood, unwanted, even after numerous price drops.

“Why now?” you might ask. Good question. Doesn’t seem like the sane thing to do. All I can say is that we felt is was the right thing to do. After much prayer, many tears and sleepless nights, we concluded that now is the best time for our family to move. I don’t know if we heard God correctly. Hence, my fear . . . . But I do know that God directs a moving ship (James 1:6). So we’ve taken a step. We’ll see what happens with our home sale.

Back to fear. In the five days our house has been subjected to public scrutiny, I’ve battled mind-numbing terror. What if I forgot to close the closet doors? What if I left the toothpaste out? What if they hate the color scheme? What if our house has something wrong with it? What if we didn’t fill out our seller disclosure statement correctly? What if it doesn’t sell? The ‘what if’ questions knot up my stomach and cloud my mind, leaving me with abulia.

Perhaps it’s a test of character, a test of faith, or an opportunity for God to show mercy on us. I don’t know. I do know that my fear is not from him (2 Timothy 1:7), so I must battle it in prayer. We’ll see what happens . . .

~Joyce

Fear and Love

I just finished reading Lifesigns, by Henri Nouwen. Though written in the 1980’s, I found his message timely for 2008. He says we are driven by fear or love. The two cannot coexist. “Fearful questions never lead to love-filled answers,” Nouwen claims.

I often think of love as the opposing force to hatred or apathy, but seldom have I considered love the alternative to fear. Yet how often does sheer survival hinder my relationships? It seems innocent enough. “If I call her, she might need something and I really don’t have time right now.”

“You volunteer once or twice, and then it never ends.”

“If I praise him for pulling up his grades, he’ll think B’s are good enough.”

Fear – of a runaway schedule, unyielding demands, or underachievement – stops love in its tracks. Though I want to extend my arms, fear suppresses my desire.

I’m thankful the God of love is stronger than my fears. By his grace, he nudges me along, to choose compassion over isolation, generosity over selfishness, encouragement over criticism . . . love over fear. What fearful questions are you asking today? How is God challenging you to ask different questions?

~Joyce