11.15.2009

Fear is only a Word

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." -Marianne Williamson

For me, the most terrifying thing is having to watch something happen - something you want to change, something you have to change - and not being able to. Being helpless. That's the worst. It's watching someone you love die, it's finding something taken - stolen from you. Or it's even trying your best, but not making it. We say that our greatest fear is not that we aren't good enough, but that we are great beyond measure. I've often thought about that - it sounds nice, maybe it's even a profound thought. But it's not true.

Sometimes, when we stand watching something horrifying happening before our very eyes, we stand looking because there is nothing else we can do. We sometimes tell ourselves we can do anything, but we can't. We're human. We can't stop someone from dying no matter how much we love them, we can't always find again what we have lost. We can't be better than we are if we're our best, we can't change the world's problems in one day.

But we can try. In fact, sometimes the most we can do is try. Because it's better to try and fail than to be haunted by "what-ifs." The problem is that trying sets up often for a broken heart, because to truly succeed, we often have to fight with all our being. But I guess it's better to have a broken heart than a complete one, because a broken heart makes us feel - makes us comprehend - instead of being numb. After all, to truly be alive, we have to live.

(thanks for the comments - I love reading them - sorry haven't had time to reply)

14 comments:

Native said...

I would disagree... our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
Because if we are then there is no excuse for all the short comings.
If we do have the power to change the world then we have nothing to stop us from doing it.
People want to be comfortable and will believe something until it risks that comfort.
Take following christ for example when jesus says Love our enemies i dont think he meant we should kill them... and we dont have to but its easier to do so.
We are afraid of all that we can do, so we dont have to do it

Tunafish said...

I think that it is a mix of both of them. What appears to be our fear is that we are inadequate and can't do what is required and commanded of us. But in reality it is that we are afraid of coming short when we have all of the ability and 'power' that we have. Like we have the power but are afraid of misusing it or messing up. Like GOD gives us the ability and depth to love but we are still doubtful in ourselves, that we'll come through, and GOD, that He'll come through as well. GOD merely works through us so it's our job to provide opportunity for salvation. For dying a sinner is to die eternal but to die as a new creation and a saved being is to find true life and give true love. I guess the saying 'It must get worse before it gets better' is true. If we had been perfect and blameless, Jesus' death would have been meaningless and stupid. Would have been. It took our fall to bring beauty out of His sacrifice. It took our failure to bring redemption. Perelandra takes a look at the perfect world and probably says the last couple sentences better than me. I'm a pretty bad writer but practice makes perfect so... I used a few cliches... not good. Anyways, great post =) it made me think and I like that. Jesus loves you! =)

~Silver said...

beautifully put...

Anonymous said...

your posts are always beyond amazing. i've missed them so much :)

-Amy <3

jEeRo said...

yes..often fear held us back from doing things we wanna do or wish to do..its human nature i suppose..but yes i do agreed that..no matter what..one should at least try..cuz you never know what the out-come maybe..unless you try..agreed?..

Twisting by said...

its been a while since i've been here!
yes. we cannot let fear take control of us. fear of failure or of power. we definitely aren't all powerful beings, although we are capable of killing, of forgetting and of evil. we certainly aren't beings doomed for failure either, although we can fall and never get up, we can destroy our planet and we can destroy ourselves.

we are human. we can do what we want, its a mater of choosing to to something good or something bad, choosing to take a step forward or backwards or not take a step at all. its all about choices lol... we can control our fear through choices.

amanda jay said...

"After all, to truly be alive, we have to live."

i like that.

but im not sure whats worse..trying your best and dealing with the guilt of failure or being haunted by "what-ifs"...?

Brii333 said...

I totally get what you mean. i spent a lot of time dwelling on what i did wrong, and it took a long time for me to wake up, but after i realized exactly what you just wrote about, i...was happier. i still believe that there is nothing i can't at least try to make better, but at least i know better what my limits are. I don't fear screwing up because I won't accept it.
It's probably about as healthy as blaming myself, but at least I'm not miserable.

Savy said...

I think the word "try" should not exist. To be honest, fear is our greatest enemy and if you doubt even for a minute that you can't do anything, then you can't. I'm a strong believer that if you believe in something enough, you can make it happen. I agree with Native and I will say fear is a cop out. We CAN do ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING but fear is our excuse not to. Except it's not a very good one.

I really have missed your posts, love your topics and your writing ;)

Okie said...

I think our limitations are the keys to our fears...whether it be that we fear what we can't control or fear that we're not achieving our full potential, it seems most of the things we fear come from these limits.

The comments above largely summed up my thoughts, but I wanted to post briefly and thank you for a thoughtful post.

justin said...

I agree with you with regards to your opinion on fear, but disagree with your statement that one needs a broken-heart to know how to live. It doesn't take a broken-heart to enjoy life, a broken-heart actually makes life worse. As humans we are born with the emotions to connect with our surroundings and with other humans. This is how we live.

Nathaniel said...

is fear just a word or is it a word that was thought in our hearts and then spoken by our mouth, the bible tells us "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks"

I believe that it is something we speak into existence in our lives and those of others. And it wasn't until recently that I truly understood this. I would consider all the negative of a given situation and I would literally find myself talking out loud all the different scenarios I was thinking about ... and then God spoke to me clear as day and said ... do you hear yourself and what you are saying you are speaking all this negativity into your own life ... you are cursing yourself ... fear I believe is more than just a word it is a spirit (that we grant permissions to through our words) that wants to control us with the ultimate goal of destroying people and stop people from performing your ultimate purpose and that is to have a relationship with God.
To rule fear we must guard our hearts and we do this by consuming the Word of God daily ... and by doing so we will know how to react when our shortcomings start kick in

yellowblue said...

We often say things like "i would give my life for him/her", but i feel like that's not always true, and you basically jsut explained why... because when it comes down to an unhypothetical (is that a word?) situation, we just don't know how we're going to respond.

I saw Kick-Ass last night, and I know that it's like an action comedy, but your post sorta reminded me of it because the narrator talks about people who just watch other people being mugged/bullied/etc.

It's horrible when no one is helping you but it's probably worse to be watching the problem without a clue as to how to help.

I agree.

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