Fear! What is fear? Don’t you fear? Why do you fear? These are some of the questions that we face in our day to day life as we grow. Can any of you give me an example of a person who does not have fear in his or her life of some sort? I think no one in the world is ever free from FEAR. There is always some kind of fear in everyone’s life. You may accept it or may not but it is the fact. In my own personal life, I have experienced tremendous amount of fear sometimes. I was afraid of failing as student, misunderstanding, ignorance, hell etcetera. I agree with Palmer when she says, “Fear is what distances us from our colleagues, our students, our subjects, ourselves. Fear shuts down those “experiments with truth” that allow us to weave a wider web of connectedness-and shuts down our capacity to teach well,” (Palmer, P. 36). In a sense fear is disconnectedness.
The negative aspects of fear can ruin our life but the positive ones can really build it. I know one of my friends who was very much afraid of appearing for the final board examination in his 10th grade because it is considered to be the toughest one by many people. He appeared for it but failed. So he never wrote it again, as a result he could never proceed in his studies. The negative impact of fear ever remained in his heart. If he had tried again surely, he could have succeeded. I remember for the same examination, I too had a tremendous fear in my heart. Because of fear of failing I studied systematically very hard and as a result I achieved very good result. Fear assisted me to come out with flying colors. As I am adult now, I do experience so many types of fears such as, uncertainties in life, future ministry as Jesuit, of how to complete my theological studies, and so forth. I have realized that positive attitudes towards any type of fear lead us to constructive result. We must not be defeated by fear but win over it. Jesus says in the Gospels, “Do not be afraid, I am always with you till the end of time.” Relying on His providence and kindness, we all need to make our journeys in the unknown horizon of life.
Yes, Palmer says are we going to BE the fear, or choose to transcend the fear.... Thank you for sharing the example of your friend and yourself. Fear can really be paralyzing, especially the fear of failure. I believe that the more that we accept ourselves (good and not so good), then the more we can deal with the fear of failure and rejection.
ReplyDeleteFear is a huge part of the human condition, however, we do have our Faith in God who upholds us, who walks with us, and who even carries us. Jesus says why worry about tomorrow, there is enough today to take care of. It is important that we do not deny the fear that we feel, but again take it into prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to help us through it, to learn and grow from it. We can do and face all things through God who strengthens us and bestows his mercy and grace upon us!!
Bipin I highlighted the same quote in my book. I loved that Palmer pointed out that fear is what distances us from people. That is so true, I never really looked at it this way but it has definitely given me a different perspective of how to handle certain situations. I do not want to distance myself from anyone in my life. It is so important we try to tackle our fears so we get to know people and they get to know the real us, not the people we sometimes can hide from the world. I want people to be able to see both the inner and outer parts of me. Thank you for sharing the story about your friend. I think so many of us may miss opportunities just as your friend did because of fear. If we learn to acknowledge our fear we can accomplish anything in life! Your insights will be greatly missed in class, but I do look forward to reading your blogs!
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