Fear

"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


So, earlier today I was talking to a beautiful young woman about numerous (I always hate that numerous doesn't have a b in it) things. If you know me well, I've probably told you about how I can feel pain, other people's pain that is. It is, I think, my greatest challenge in life, learning to deal with this ability. But... that is a post for another day, today I would like to talk about fear.

I knew I needed to talk to her about something, but I had no idea what it is, which is often the case. I have some incredible insight sometimes... but I usually don't realize it until I'm in the fire, so to speak. Anyway, as we were talking the subject shifted towards fear and I made a statement that got me thinking for the past... well, quite a while.

Fear is a temptation.

Perhaps it's not as cut and dry as that, fear itself isn't a temptation, but rather a symptom of a temptation. At this point I'd like to state that caution and fear are different things--although they are sometimes hard to differentiate. Fear is the result of Satan attempting to get us to do something we know we ought to do but whose results might not be favorable to us. Breaking up with the girlfriend, asking the girl out, sharing bad news, telling the truth. All of these things could have unpleasant results, but... we know we should do them.

There are some times when caution and fear overlap, pressing an attack under enemy fire, probing too deeply into another persons feelings or moving to a far away place. Anyway, I'm rambling and it's late... I guess I just realized that I've let fear take far too large a hold in my life and it's time to man up.