“For
God had not given us a spirit of fear but love, power and a sound mind” (2
Timothy 1:7) – Part Three
Interestingly,
our fears indicate potential strengths. Norman Vincent Peale, the late
venerable Pastor of Marble Collegiate Church and author of more than forty
books on the necessity of maintaining a positive mental attitude and
implementing the power of positive thinking, posits “Do the thing that you most
fear and the death of fear itself is certain.” David, the little shepherd boy
who relies on the strength and power of God’s Name, defeats the real enemy,
fear, before he confronts Goliath. Unlike the paralyzed and frightened men of
Israel’s army, David does not allow his fear to prevent him from fighting. Each
morning, many disciples wake up and immediately enter a fight with the Goliath
that yells across the Valley of Bacca that exists between their ears and within
their hearts. David’s example teaches us to defeat fear to eliminate
adversities. Confronting fears transforms them from liabilities into assets.
Mel Robbins, prominent motivational speaker and life coach, defines courage as
the willingness to try. She insists minimal bravery is necessary to triumph
over any fears.
Personally,
I recall a previous job in which my supervisor and head of the department ruled
with an iron fist. She relished any opportunity to intimidate any employee. She
particularly and sadistically enjoyed threatening people with termination. She
escalated small incidents of miscommunication and harmless errors to enable
this serious threat. She demonstrated a wholesale disregard for her
subordinates and the well-being of their families when she made such threats to
their livelihoods and quality of life. I
became a consistent recipient of this immoral and unethical pattern of
behavior. However, an internal irony occurred after a year of this obnoxious
supervisory conduct. Tired of receiving these threats, I straightforwardly
confronted this supervisor. I told her that I was no longer afraid of her. Her
excessive use of threats weakened their intention and force. Ironically, she
empowered me with the power to fight her. My fears and resulting depression
transformed into anger, repulsion and intensity to fight. I retained legal
counsel and meticulously fought any further intimidating tactics prior to my
departure from that job. My experience illustrates God’s power to demolish fear
and change it into an inner resource. Human beings are not meant to live in
fear.
The
life of the British psychoanalyst, developmental theorist and writer, D. W.
Winnicott, depicts love’s power to heal, redeem and create. Rarely does anyone
create anything meaningful or enduring out of ear. Fear and faith cannot
coexist spatially parallel to darkness and light. Faith in God’s love as
experienced in vibrant human relationships empowers disciples to create,
design, invent, envision and innovate. Love possesses the power to destroy fear
and other destructive forces. Sometimes, inability to create, paralysis and
lack of productivity ensue when fear and lovelessness predominate. Paul
accordingly encourages Timothy to seek refuge in God’s unfailing love. His
protégé will fulfill his ministry’s mission and purpose if he retreats to the
safety and care of God’s empowering love. Winnicott suffered thoroughgoing
personal, physical and professional impotence in his first marriage.
Biographers and other analysts characterize that relationship as loveless,
passionless and lifeless. Duty and conventional social mores compelled his
commitment notwithstanding the dearth of his marriage. He remarried after a
period as a widower. In contrast, Winnicott’s second marriage evolved into a
rejuvenating and impassioned relationship upon which he made an enduring
contribution to psychoanalysis and developmental theory. The energy of his love
fueled his thinking, writing, analytic practice, teaching and scholarship. His
story attests to the power of love. God has not given any disciple a spirit of
fear but love, power and a sound mind. Fear impedes self-realization and
achieving personal destiny. Genuine reliance upon God’s unfailing love empowers
disciples in attaining these two existential milestones.
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