4.15.2008

Facing Our Fear(s)...

On Friday afternoon I listened to a guy tell a story about his son. He said that the family had recently been to the fair and his 6 year old son was to scared to ride the ferris wheel. That might be normal for a lot of kids. But here's what makes this situation odd...The kid had been on the ferris wheel before. As a 3 year old he rode it with his dad and loved it. But now he is afraid.

That got me to thinking about our fears. And I've come to this conclusion (as of now): Most of our fears are learned fears. We tell our children not to touch a hot iron because it is hot and it will hurt them. They become afraid of the iron. Thus, it's a learned fear. And this is not a bad thing because we don't want them to get burned...But how many of our learned fears are bad? How many of our fears that we've learned from others and from experience in life keep us from being who God wants us to be? How much of the fear in our lives that keeps us from following God full fledged is instilled in us through learning?

Over the past few days, I have been trying to examine my own life and see how many of my fears are learned. I think that far too many times people fail to follow God and take giant steps of faith because of fear...And unfortunately many of those fears are learned.

What about you? What do you think? Are there some learned fears that are keeping you from jumping on the ferris wheel of life and going on an incredible ride with your Father? If so, what are you going to do to unlearn those fears?

No comments: