Fear or Faith...You Can't Have Both
Our society seems to be neck deep in an epidemic of fear these days. Every time we turn around we are alerted to something else we need to be afraid of. In these days of 24 hour news broadcasts, there is no getting away from the constant barrage of stories describing how frightening our world is. Whether it is diseases, gun violence, bullying, road rage, or just your fellow man in general, the message is always "be afraid...be very afraid." My personal solution to this consistent stream of negativity coming from the TV, was to sell said TV. That was a great first step. But what else can be done to combat this pervasive onslaught of fear?
Let's examine fear for a moment. Fear is nothing more than an emotion, and all emotions are caused by our thoughts. Our thoughts create our reality. When information enters our brains, we have the option to choose what to do with that information. We can think about anything in any way we want, at least in our conscious mind. What our conscious (or thinking) mind decides to make of the incoming data determines what will end up in our subconscious mind...which then becomes the future program that we operate from. This is where we have to be extremely cognizant of what thoughts we allow into our subconscious mind, because 90% of our day to day behavior is dictated from this space.
Our brains are incredibly malleable. As I said, most of our daily actions are taken directly from our subconscious mind. These are all of the thoughts and ideas that have been inadvertently internalized from all different outside sources. Beginning as babies, everything we experience is external. We don't yet have the ability to discern what is happening around us, therefore, our program is installed by the thoughts and ideas that are planted by our parents, relatives, teachers and society in general. By the time we are six years old, we have developed a personality; ironically we had nothing to do with the development of this personality, yet we continue to believe it is our identity. (That is a whole different discussion for another day.)
If we go through our lives operating based on this pre-installed persona, without any examination, we never actually become the people we were meant to be. In essence, "we" are made up of all of the input of those who had the earliest influence on our thinking. I make this point because, as adults, if we don't make this realization and we refrain from self-examination, we will unknowingly continue to feed this old subconscious program. That is one of the reasons that the news can instill such fear in some people. As the stories are reported, the emphasis is always on the horror of it all. There is never any attempt to alleviate the worrying of the masses by discussing the rarity of most of the events that take place. This is where the thinking, conscious mind must take over. We are the only animals with the ability to use our cognition to make sense of our world. All other animals react based on instinct, but our brains actually have the capability of examining information and making conclusions based on knowledge. That leads me to faith.
People like to proclaim that they are faithful, and I am not just referring to those professing religious faith. Motivational speaker, Bob Proctor, states that "faith and fear are both the belief in something you can't see." That is where the similarities end, however. The non-religious definition of faith is, "complete trust or confidence in something or someone." Since the definition of fear is, "to be afraid of (someone or something) as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening" it should be clear that they cannot coexist. Yet, so often these days, many who claim they have faith are completely consumed by fear. The problem is that many practice blind faith. Blind faith is almost worthless; faith with understanding is powerful.
So how do we apply understanding to faith? By gaining knowledge. Let's examine a few statistics. According to Reuters, there was not one death in a commercial airline accident in 2017, and there were approximately 325 airline related deaths in 2016 from 19 accidents. In contrast, in 2017 alone 37,461 deaths occurred as a result of automobile accidents in the United States, down a bit from over 40,000 traffic fatalities in 2016 (National Traffic Safety Administration). Despite these very revealing numbers, there are millions of Americans who refuse to fly anywhere for fear of perishing by falling out of the sky. These same people do not think twice about getting in their cars every single day and fearlessly driving to their destinations.
Why might this be? We are not bombarded with stories of car crashes, even though an average of 100 lives are lost every single day in this manner. However, when there is a plane crash, we are treated to a non-stop, 24 hour dissertation of the tragedy. As this information enters our brains, with no examination of the actual prevalence of this type of incident, our subconscious mind is like a sitting duck to whatever it is being fed. We are treated to a whole new episode of programming, and our subconscious sucks it up like a sponge. The only antidote to this is to consciously challenge it by testing the validity of the facts being reported.
While I'm not saying that the events on the news are not tragic, the point I am attempting to get across is that without examining the information logically, we leave ourselves open to filling our brains with what the outside world wants us to know. As a result of the constant repetition of these stories, the level to which these incidents gain relevance is hightened. Unlike when we were babies, as thinking adults, we have to power to decide what gets installed in our program. We can choose to accept certain aspects of what we are told and reject others. Once we gather and assess the information to the best of our understanding, only then we can apply faith to our lives. The beauty of this is that it then comes from a place of knowing.
Though I don't want to get into a detailed discussion of school shootings, suffice to say that my research revealed that approximately 9 students lost their lives in school shootings in 2017, according to Wikipedia. Though tragic, compare this to the over 1,600 children who die in car crashes every single year in this country. If people actually learned these facts, perhaps the fear of sending children to school following these incidents wouldn't be so astronomical. Statistically, the average person has a better chance of getting struck by lightning or winning the Powerball than dying in any mass shooting. You can see that once you gain an understanding of this, you can put fear in its proper perspective.
The final point I would like to make about fear is this. As far as we know, we are in our physical bodies for a relatively short time. If we are lucky, we will enjoy eight or nine decades on this Earth. We have the choice of how we spend this time, and the most critical choice we get to make is what thoughts occupy the space in our heads. If, more often that not, we decide to let fear be the governing emotion in our lives, what exactly is the point of this existence? Going through life paralyzed by what "might" happen seems like a tragic waste of this beautiful gift we've been given.
Personal development author, Jen Sincero, has said "When you succumb to fear, you are under the illusion that you can predict the future." Regardless of what you believe, none of us has that ability. Instead, perhaps we should wake up each day and just enjoy it as if it is our last. Go where you want to go, spend time with those who make you happy, experience everything this amazing world has to offer, and know that despite any unforseen calamity that might occur, you made the very most of your time on this planet. Remain conscious of what you are allowing into your subconscious mind, and make every effort to apply understanding to your faith. If you follow this prescription, you will have no regrets at the end of your time here, whenever it arrives. Go forth fearlessly.