Unless we’re some sort of adrenaline junky, we don’t generally like feeling fear. It’s unsettling. It makes us feel anxious and out of control. It leaves us feeling vulnerable and unsafe. It’s just plain uncomfortable. Who wants that?
Life is unpredictable. If we’re going to be honest, there is very little that we actually control. Fear is always just under the surface. Nearly all addictions are our attempt to avoid acknowledging that fear. Our preoccupation with acting out helps us feel in control and “normal”. But, we’re fooling ourselves. The fear is still there, it’s just numbed by the neurochemicals the addictive behaviors create. It lulls us into a false “comfort zone.” As long as we can avoid the fear we feel OK.
But what if the opposite is actually true? What if feeling uncomfortable, and even feeling fear, is actually a GOOD thing?
When we settle into a man-made comfort zone, we are simply choosing to remain stuck. Nothing gets resolved. Nothing changes. We don’t grow or move forward. In fact, things are actually getting worse, but we just refuse to see it until reality punches us in the face and we realize that we are in BIG trouble. It is only as we choose to face our fears and address the issues behind them head on, that we can begin to get free from the quicksand that has ensnared us.
It’s a scary proposition, but, with the help of God and others, we CAN do it. If we’re feeling fear, we’re actually moving in the right direction. We’re moving out of stagnancy and heading toward becoming the authentic, victorious person God always intended us to be.
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”—Philippians 3:13-14
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