THE ANATOMY OF FEAR

Renown poet Maya Angelou is quoted for saying “we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike” in her famous work “Human Family”.

Her poem emphasizes the fact that despite our cultural, physical, political, life-span years, social-economic status, or any other personal differences, we share many fundamental commonalities.

“FEAR”, is one of those fundamental commonalities that we all share

Whether in the Congo or on Congress Street, Peru or Poland, Beijing or Brisbane, Moscow or Mumbai, we are more alike, than we are unalike.

Studies have shown that there are six basic emotions that we all share; Happiness, Sadness, Disgust, Surprise, Anger and FEAR.

Fear is arguably the most powerful of them all.

Fear will make you do things you wouldn’t normally do. Fear is a Master of Distortion. Fear makes every problem seem larger than it is.

Fear desires to Master you, but you must learn to Master Fear.

Fear isn’t just about avoiding life threatening situations, or a disdain for pain, it also ignites within us a complex emotional experience that manipulates our thoughts, memories, and senses for its own purposes.

For those who would say, yeah but Fear is innate, we all are born with it; I would tell them, that is but only one type of fear.

Fear has many faces; and we will explore a few of them here today.

It is true that we are all born with Innate Fear. But that’s only 2 Fears.

Fear of Loud Noises, and Fear of Falling. What about the others?

These two fears can be seen in a newborn infant, because they are innate/unlearned, all the other Fears that we experience are learned.

Which begs to question, What other Fears have we learned? And from whom did we learn them?

You see babies aren’t born afraid of spiders; they had to learn that Fear. Someone had to contaminate them with the virus of Arachnophobia.

All Fears are not created equal. All Fears are not phobias.

There is also what is known as the Great Eight, Worldly Concerns/Fears.

These Fears are ones associated with the possibility of Loss or Gain, Fame or Insignificance, Praise or Blame, and Pleasure or Pain.

So, you see, there is a great distinction between the 2 Fears that we were born with, compared to the many Fears that we have borrowed.

It has been reported that there are only two main reasons why we do anything; Love or Fear. Fear has been determined to be the greater force.

In addition to the various types/faces of Fear, did you know that some Fears are Naturally induced, while other Fears are Spiritually induced?

Were the Fears you contracted Naturally induced or Spiritually induced? How did you learn them? Why did you learn them?

Innate Fears are biological and promote instinctual responses that are present at birth. They are not the result of any previous exposure to danger. We were born into this type of Fear.

Learned Fears are acquired through our experiences with others; they come through interaction with culture and observation. We are influenced into this type of Fear.

Spiritual Fears are Existential / Supernatural / Metaphysical. They impact our soul’s belief system as well as those in our generational lineage. We are seduced / bedeviled into this type of Fear.

To summarize, Innate Fears focus on our body anatomically, Learned Fears focus on our life experientially, and Spiritual Fears focus on our mental and emotional state to impact our faith eternally.

When did Fear begin? Everything that began, begun in the Beginning. So, let’s go back to the Beginning.

In the Beginning, Adam was not created with Fear. He didn’t even know what it was.

He walked and talked with a God he could not see, he was surrounded by wild animals, was homeless, underwent surgery, had the first Caesarean Section with no anesthesia, delivered a whole person, fell in love, got married, all without knowing any type of Fear.

It wasn’t until after someone in his community contaminated him that he learned Fear.

Who in your circle is spreading their Fear to you?

What Fears have you contracted from others?

Next time we’ll talk about a vaccine for the Fear virus that is spreading throughout the world and our households.

I wonder what all we could do, or would do if we were not afraid to…?

This is a Thompson Truth