Invoking Fear

I am a California Native since 1960 and I can remember as young as elementary school, always hearing about the big earthquake that will be taking the edge or all of California off the map.  As I was growing up and the earth would shake beneath me, I would always start praying and asking God if this was the "Big One".  Every single time, I would think to myself that this could be the day. Again, the media is grasping on to this concept because of the recent cluster earthquakes we have been experiencing in the North and South. I can't help but think, like myself as a child, that there are children hearing this stuff on the internet and tv and they are terrified. My daughter recently called me after experiencing an earthquake and how her children were terrified. All they had to do was come out of their room and see their Mom and her presence calmed them knowing she would do anything to protect them. As an adult experiencing the earth moving, I quite often think how no matter what happens, how horrific an event it may become, God is protecting me and will see me through life or should I become a casualty. We are all prone to a disaster of any kind at any minute and our "perfect worlds" could be changed instantly. I don't want to waste my time thinking about pending doom and my mortality.

Why is it that some people have it in their nature of wanting to spread fear, rather than positivity? Whenever something horrific happens, whether locally or from a distance, there are always those people who just love to talk about it in detail. It's like they get off on other people's devastation. The intensity of their faces as they are describing every detail. I really don't like when people tell me, "Did you hear about so and so and what happened to them?" -- "No!, I didn't hear and I don't want to hear it from you!" More disturbing is when they are smiling as they tell the story -- like they are getting some satisfaction of being the one to report it out to everyone.

It's hard enough to hear about all the disasters on the news on a daily basis. There are times, where I don't even watch the news, because it can be so depressing and fear invoking. I love Mr. Fred Rogers take on disasters, rather than focussing on the devastation, look for the helpers or the ones running toward it to help those being affected. What a beautiful concept. One thing I love after something disastrous happens is when someone organizes a way for the community as a whole to come forward to contribute financially or if physically able through serving individuals directly who have been misplaced or suffered severe loss as the result.

A positive spin on pending doom, rather than focussing on the what ifs or when, listen to those who provide us information and awareness. What steps can we take to lessen the effect of a potential disaster? After said disaster, who should we check on and how can we communicate with family and friends who aren't near in vicinity to us? What have we mapped out in our homes to escape should we have to? Awareness is much gentler than invoking the fear factor of any and all events. This goes the same for medical health events that can occur. Having awareness should the event take place and to be able to survive it through education should be the focus.

There are ways to give messages and it is all about the delivery. As I was growing up and learning about the Bible, there were many preachers and mentors who tried to convey their belief systems about religion to me, but they would invoke fear -- "If you don't do this, you will burn in hell!!!" I remember some young convert one time walking up to me and telling me I was destined to hell. Excuse me? Versus another person who walked up to me and told me, "Do you know Jesus loves you?" -- then they would proceed to tell me about their belief -- even though I already loved Jesus and knew about Him, I wanted to afford them the opportunity to share what they knew and their testimonies. This is a much better method of learning about Jesus.  There was a period of time in my childhood, where God was scary. In previous posts, I spoke about my terrifying fire and brimstones Bible stories my parents would read my brother and I before we would go to bed. It was horrible delivery. But as I matured in my relationship with Jesus, I found Pastors who delivered a beautiful message and focussed on the love of God, Christ and Holy Spirit. Awareness was given about heaven and about hell -- it wasn't sugar coated, but certainly it wasn't at the forefront of the message. After reading through several scripture passages, directive is provided how when delivery the gospel of Jesus Christ how we should be kind and gentle -- not being a stumbling block to someone who is searching for their purpose.

By invoking fear in someone, it just sets a person up for having a stinking thinking thought to ponder on for the rest of their day. Living in fear is such a waste of the beautiful minutes we have to live and concentrate on the more positive things in this life and making a difference for the good of man. Every time we wake up in the morning, we just need to thank God for another day and hand it off to Him.