Fear based animals?

My old blogging buddy Violet did a post called “therapeutic perspectives on the Trump victory.”

Never mind  all that, she said something else in there that caught my attention, “We humans are animals whose primary motivation is often fear, and rightly so.”

It struck me as somewhat funny because I remember a couple of teenagers perched on top of the dining room table shrieking about a spider. I have no idea where they got their arachnophobia, but it wasn’t from their mother. That was the one and only time I recall humans actually acting as if they could quite possibly be, “fear based animals.” Teen agers, they’re all animals, I tell ya.

We are not “animals whose primary motivation is fear,” or at least I am not. Like a lot of humans, I’m actually dumber than a box of rocks and haven’t got the good sense to be afraid. Ask my kids, a giant man-eating spider could be crawling through my hair and it wouldn’t even phase me. They think I’m a defective human.

What struck me as interesting however, was how fear is such a matter of perception and attitude.  You can be, “an animal whose primary motivation is fear,” or you can be the child of a most High God. As the child of a most High God, you learn that “perfect love casts out fear.” You learn that faith and fear are actually opposites, that they cannot coexist. You learn about “His peace that surpasses all understanding.” You learn that you have a Rock to rely on, to lean into when the going gets tough. Fear is actually just a form of putting your tiny human faith in the worst possible outcome. It is an inability to trust that God is in control.

Whenever I get anxious or concerned, whenever I feel that pressure to do something, to fix it, I know that is not of God, that I have simply stepped too far away from Him. In the boat on the Sea of Galilee Christ tells Peter to keep his eyes on Him. You can walk on water if your eyes are on Him, but the moment you look away, fear creeps in, fear of sinking into those waves, fear of all the things that can go wrong. Fear of not being the one in control.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”          -2 Timothy 1:7