Fear is Jail

jail

Fear is  jail.

The world has so much information to offer.

Libraries, schools, experts, and the troves of resources on the internet make learning almost anything possible.

But is success probable? Only sometimes.

Education and information don’t create success. If it did, success would be simple and assured.

Since it’s not, there’s always some psychology to understand first.

Namely, fear.

Despite the resources, we hit bumps. We stagnant. We get discouraged. We give up too soon.

We are both afraid to fail and afraid to succeed. We fear the unknown and the too familiar. We fear change and we fear sameness.

Just knowing this can take a few teeth out of fear and can give us a cell key.

cell key

Information can help us through our fear. It’s a tool, key. But, we can sit in a cell whose door is wide open.

We assume information is the solution sometimes. It’s certainly not.

That’s why when you make resources and opportunities available to a frightened population success is still rare.

People–whether they know it or not–get stuck being afraid. Jailed.

But, back to the key: Information.
We live in a time were we can pick so many things for ourselves. The rich and powerful used to corner this market. Not just recently in the Industrial Age, but in every age. Social classes, gender, skin color and many other inescapable factors determined what you could accomplish in a lifetime. No more.

But so much will stop us. So, back to fear. It must be tamed. Always.

A path, a formula, or expert advice make wading through a bit easier. But here is the best key: As we utilize our resources we sill have to be honest that we are fearful and it affects us greatly.

If you sense that you aren’t moving forward, or you’re distracting your self routinely, ask yourself some hard questions about what you fear.

Armed with those answers you can push through if you get brave. Fear will be back of course, but you’ll be more prepared for it. You’ll do battle again and again. Know your enemy. Use your tools. Work your key.

Published by

Spark My Muse

Lisa Colón DeLay writes often on matters of the attending to the inner life, creating a beloved community, spiritual formation, and consciousness. She is also a designer, teacher, speaker, and host of the weekly broadcast Spark My Muse since 2015. Lisa is Latina (born in Puerto Rico) and holds an MA in Spiritual Formation and is the author of "The Wild Land Within" (Broadleaf Books) and other books.

2 thoughts on “Fear is Jail”

  1. Good post. Information/education has been the mantra of a lot of social system “experts” since at least the 60’s. Information/education requires integration into our lives and execution. A kind of Franciscan doing if you are involved in the “Spirited” life.

    While I prefer love as a motivation, fear is very effective, if you prefer respect as the hebrew translation of “yirat” I can work with that as well. fear/respect is a great motivator, i’ve been using hunting weapons since i was 10 years old, i still fear/respect them, they motivate me to always look in the chamber when i pick them up and i don’t point them at anyone. when i fire them in the field i am always concerned about the “backstop”.

    for some fear/respect is paralysis, avoidance, denouncement, banning, whatever – they are jailed.

  2. I’m with you that love can be a better motivator. I think the person, their background, and the specific situation helps us to figure out how to navigate that. Though love can heal and draw us near, fear sneaks up in the back and can overshadow us unawares.

    Love can indeed conquer it and I think we see this most clearly in the koinonia of God through Jesus.

    Also nice to hear from you here, friend.

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