By Reverend Paul N. Papas II
2 October 2012
A look at today’s hot election season and the world events could have you ready to hide under the sheets until it is over. Fear of what could be the future could have you headed to the psychiatrist’s couch.
Its dark out and you’re home alone. The house is quiet other than the sound of the show you’re watching on TV. You see it and hear it at the same time: The front door is suddenly thrown against the door frame.
Your breathing speeds up, your our heart races, and your our muscles tighten.
A split second later, you know it’s the wind. No one is trying to get into your home.
For a split second, you were so afraid that you reacted as if your life were in danger, your body initiating the fight-or-flight response that is critical to any animal’s survival. But really, there was no danger at all. What happened to cause such an intense reaction? What exactly is fear? In this article, we’ll examine the psychological and physical properties of fear, find out what causes a fear response and look at some ways you can defeat it
Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response. The stimulus could be a spider, a knife at your throat, an auditorium full of people waiting for you to speak or the sudden thud of your front door against the door frame.
The brain is a profoundly complex organ. More than 100 billion nerve cells comprise an intricate network of communications that is the starting point of everything we sense, think and do. Some of these communications lead to conscious thought and action, while others produce autonomic responses. The fear response is almost entirely autonomic: We don’t consciously trigger it or even know what’s going on until it has run its course.
Because cells in the brain are constantly transferring information and triggering responses, there are dozens of areas of the brain at least peripherally involved in fear.
Fear often manifests itself by the impulse to escape or run away. Various nuances of fear include dismay, anxiety, worry, shyness, fright, alarm, horror, terror, or panic-all forms of fear to one degree or another.
There are some basic causes of fear. Depending on our emotions and psychological makeup, we will react accordingly. These categories are broad, and many different situations may fit under each. A very helpful book for understanding the cause of fear is entitled, Discovering Ourselves, by Edward Strecker and John Appel, published by the Macmillan Company, New York, 1963.
What causes fear? Why do people often react differently when frightful situations arise? The answer has to do with human emotions. The better we understand our emotions, the more equipped we are to handle various circumstances that may arise. Many programs to the problem of handling fear have been suggested. Some people have been able to employ these programs successfully. Others have not. For many, these strategies seem to work temporarily, but eventually the problem of fear returns. All these programs overlook the most important thing of all-relying on God for His help. For the Christian there is a permanent solution to the problem of fear, a problem that may have to be faced many times during our lives.
There are three basic causes of fear. These are: the possibility of harm, the possibility of frustration (the failure to achieve), and the possibility of not surviving. Any of these fears may be caused by real or imagined threats.
Fear brings bondage. There is no getting around that fact. When a spirit of fear takes root in your life, you become a slave to that fear. Faith brings freedom, which is why the devil works so hard to keep Christians in fear and out of faith. If he cannot take a person to hell, he will at least try to keep that person bound up, paralyzed, and ineffective as a Christian witness. If any Christian ever gets hold of faith and the liberty faith brings, the devil knows he is in trouble!
Is there anything wrong with fear? The answer: It depends on the way one responds to fear. Fear is an integral part of man’s nature which serves as a protective device. It is a part of life. In many ways it can prevent us from suffering harm, but the reaction to fear varies greatly with individuals. Emotions were placed within the nature of man to add interest to our lives. Emotions give excitement, make life enjoyable, and produce a great deal of variety. They add zest and color. The right kind of fear enables us to handle the various problems in life and to insure our safety and mental comfort. Wrongly controlled they can be debilitating, harmful, paralyzing, and destructive. It has been said that many who have a medical condition of a mental illness suffer from uncontrolled emotions. Emotions, therefore, can either be good or bad.
IF your fear relates to what may or may not happen on November 6, 2012 then I suggest that you earnestly work to advancing your cause by actively working for your candidate and actually vote. I suggest you do the research to know your candidates past the sound bytes that are presented on the three old standby networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC. I would suggest the following link as a way of starting the discussion, you may agree or disagree with the content, however it should have you thinking about the content. http://reclaimourrepublic.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/the-movie-obamas-america-2016-a-must-see-at-this-link/ (dead link)
Vote November 6, 2012.
https://preacher01704.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/worrying-about-the-future-can-you-help-the-outcome/
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