What is the thing you are most afraid of?

Do you mentally spin endless versions of a scary future – slow, sad reels about a world not quite right, or maybe horribly wrong? Where are you in these projections? Off to the side, crying? Alone? Unloved? Hurt?

If you were here in my house with me, sharing a hot mug of tea and sipping it more than you were looking at me, maybe I’d feel safe enough to share with you my own fears. They are too deep and too personal, though, to throw out onto the world wide web.

Most often the routine demands of work and meals and hobbies and relationships tug me from one end of the day to the other and a sort of stoicism covers fearful thoughts that I have tucked away… but these thoughts still sometimes trek through my psyche like random gusts of wind inside a quiet home.

So… for me… fears are often repressed until I find myself in exactly the right place to face them. This could be next to someone who loves me, warm and real and near, or it could be when worship takes me into God’s presence. In both situations something inside me unlocks and fear oozes out.

Release.

Fear, so powerful when trapped inside, fades when exposed in a safe place.

And fear, I have found, goes hand in hand with control. Releasing fear often means releasing control. Scary, if you don’t believe in a God who is good, who loves you, and who can handle being in charge of everything that worries you. But if you believe this, surrender – real surrender – is always going to feel better and be healthier than gripping control and its partner: fear.

I think you’ll enjoy a video my artistic husband created for his Instagram account. Here’s a link: Video

If we feel loved, life is beautiful in spite of problems we might face. If we don’t feel loved, life begins to feel pretty dark. So it’s important whether we’re going through crisis or whether we’re not going through crisis… keep love alive.

– Dr Gary Chapman