Fear: An Antidote

Fear stalks the world these days and leaves many of us uneasy.

But what do we deal with gut-churning agitation? How do you overcome it enough to live a normal life?

Recognize the source of the fear

My childhood caretakers used fear to control my behavior.

I don’t think it was intentional, that’s what made sense to them.

They warned: “If you go under the house, black widow spiders will bite and kill you.”

Since the basement door was right beside my bed, I felt uneasy if I ever saw it open.

What did a black widow spider look like? How big was it? Did they live everywhere in the basement, including beside the door?

When I got old enough to read, a book provided me with a picture–so I knew what to avoid.

It also taught me how to protect myself.

I killed any spider on sight.

My husband finally pointed out that “Daddy longlegs” spiders ate insects, it wouldn’t bite or kill me. “Repeat after me, ‘the spider is my friend.'”

I still didn’t let them stay in the house, but at least I wasn’t so terrified.

I didn’t want my children to grow up fearful. So, we read books about spiders and learned what a black widow and a brown recluse spider looked like.

Knowledge can defeat fear.

I’m just sorry I didn’t learn that tool until adulthood.

Bible verses and fear

The Bible includes many verses on fear.

As my county in northern California introduced “social distancing,” I picked up undercurrents of concern.

We’d already gone through three autumns with catastrophic fires and had survived power outages. The ladies in my Bible study are resilient and I knew they would comply, but that didn’t mean they weren’t disquieted.

The last time we met, I set aside our study of Proverbs and we discussed fear through a Biblical lens.

I found a list of ten Bible verses and we worked our way through the list.

You can review the list here.

As it happened, we had ten women in the study that day. Each woman read aloud a verse, reacted to it and the group discussed it.

We reflected on what each verse meant to us using examples from our past and what we anticipated for the future.

Some of the ladies survived World War II; we’d all endured the fires.

They are so wise!

But in their pragmaticism, they also understood we needed to apply what we were studying to our current situation.

Our God loves us.

 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”

—Psalm 46:1-3

What about the pandemic?

My friend Jerusha Agen addressed the pandemic in a recent blog post.

Called “A Pandemic of Fear,” the post’s subtitle is “4 coronavirus fears and how to beat them.”

In my family, which includes several members involved in planning and on the front lines, we pray.

We make sure we remind family members that we love them.

We try hard not to question them too closely. I listen to what they have to say, ask how they feel about things, and try to keep fear-based questions at bay.

When concern about my own possible death rears its head, I return to a blog post I wrote several years ago.

I overcame my fear of flying years ago when I remembered God knows the plans He has for me and when I will die.

Nothing has changed since then.

I live my life carefully and responsibly, but when I start to feel uneasy about the length of my life, I return to God’s perfect love.

I will die when He so chooses and not before.

Do I fear the virus?

I’m wary of it. I’ve armed myself with knowledge and information–from a trusted source like the CDC.

When my heart races, I take deep breaths and ask myself, “What do you know to be true?”

I pray for truth to be revealed if I’m not sure.

But time and again I return to faith in the God who planned my life for this time and place, for His glory.

In times of stress and fear, Scripture–particularly the Psalms–give me peace.

Tweetables

An antidote for fear–today and into the future. Click to Tweet

What do I know to be true? and handling fear. Click to Tweet

Using Bible verses to overcome fear. Click to Tweet