“If you want to conquer your fear, don’t sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” ~ Dale Carnegie
If there is one thing we know for certain, it is the dilemma of living both as spirited people and as people in the world. Too many of us are very rooted in the world in which we live and we experience great tension and, with it, fear. Our souls yearn for the Lord but we often allow ourselves to be swayed by the world. When we engage in sin, we realize that we are putting our souls in jeopardy but sometimes we cannot seem to avoid sin. This leads us to have anxiety — physical as well as spiritual — and, with it, fear as well.
“Well, just quit it”, you might say. “If sin causes you anxiety and fear, quit sinning.” I challenge you to look yourself in the mirror and say that. You would stop halfway through because you know how incredibly difficult that is to accomplish. Sin is, after all, in many ways a habit. A bad habit; but, a habit nonetheless. We all know how hard it is to break bad habits. Sometimes it takes an almost superhuman amount of attention and energy to do. Sometimes, in cases such as cigarette smoking, drinking, and the like — it even takes medical intervention.
So, thinking about Carnegie’s quote, we might say to ourselves, “That guy is daft. What does he mean, ‘go out and get busy?’ Doesn’t he know how entrenched our fears become?”
Yes. He does. He knew what fear did to people and he also knew that people had it within themselves to move from fear to victory. He wrote numerous self-help books and gave many speeches and courses in the matter. Carnegie also knew the ultimate truth: you will never accomplish anything unless you actually begin it.
Our fears often immobilize us. They lock us up within ourselves so badly that we cannot move past them. We cannot develop and grow. We cannot face what we fear. In that position, we can be pushed and manipulated by many people and events. We can feel like incredible losers. We can come to believe that all is lost and give up completely.
All it takes is one step. One step forward will help us to place the next step forward. And the next. And the next. “If you want to conquer your fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to give you the strength to identify and examine your fears so that you can make a solid plan to move past them.