Fear Is A Liar

Photo by Jaqueline Fritz on Unsplash

The blog title I chose is actually the title of a song by Zach Williams, but I chose this topic because this week in my class we are talking about overcoming fear.  I have an assignment to write five things I have learned from fear.  This is an interesting thing to think about!  Here are some of the things I came up with:

1.  Fear can stop progress.  If we have made mistakes or sinned, we can fear we are too unworthy, or are worthless, and stay stuck.  If we are afraid of trying things that are out of our comfort zone, we avoid learning new things, or trying things we might enjoy.  Instead we stay stuck where we are -- missing out on things we might love, people we might meet, and help that we are all worthy of.

2.  Choosing our direction based on what we are least afraid of can actually create shame.  For example, when I was trying to choose what to major in in college I would look at a major, and what classes were required, and if I thought some might be scary, embarrassing, or too hard, I would look at a different major.  I ended up majoring in Family Living, which is a combination of Psychology, Sociology, and Family Science and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, but even though it wasn't really easy, I always had a hard time feeling proud of my accomplishment because I had chosen based on fear.

3.  Fear of what people might think can keep us from being our authentic selves, and make it so we try to "fit in" instead of standing out for who we are.

4.  I have also found that when I fear what someone else thinks, I am often projecting how I feel about myself in that moment, or projecting the things about me I don't have confidence in.  When I think Derek is disappointed with me it is pretty much 100% of the time because I am disappointed in me!

5.  Working our way through our fears can, and I think usually does, make us stronger.

What have you learned from fear?