We keep selling fear. Everywhere.
Politics. If you vote for the other side, your good life as you know it will be over. BE AFRAID. Vote for me. I will save you. Education. If you don’t sit still and get good grades, you will never amount to anything. Your life will be in shambles. BE AFRAID. Conform. Conform. Conform. We have the answer. Family. If you don’t love what we love, do what we do and say what we say, you will be the black sheep, always wondering how and if you fit in. After all, who else will you have? BE AFRAID. Blood is blood. Church.
If you don’t believe exactly what we believe or act “just right,” then you are out of the group. You can’t lead. You shouldn’t serve. BE AFRAID. Choose us above all else, including your own integrity. Media. If you don’t watch this, buy this, listen to this, you will be missing out. Did you hear me??? Missing out. You might lose your friends, your family, your self. BE AFRAID. Keep clicking!!
You know why we keep selling fear? Everywhere? It works. It keeps us voting. And sitting. And staying. And going. And buying. Probably far too often. Far too long. Far too ___________ (fill in the blank).
When we dare to ask even the smallest of questions, we are shut down. Who are you to doubt? We know better. You’ll mess it up for everyone else. BE QUIET!!! BE AFRAID. When we take one little step “out of line,” we are herded right back. Be like everyone else. All the good ones. You are just not allowed. Period. We know better. STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT. BE AFRAID. Selling fear works. And when we have so much fear, we don’t have room for much else. It swallows us whole. It keeps us locked inside a prison of sorts. It prevents us from living our most true and beautiful life. IT DESTROYS. From the inside out. So what are we to do? What is left? What sets us free? What encourages us to create, wonder, be curious, change and grow? What helps our hearts to come fully alive? What allows us to be our very best and whole selves? NOT FEAR. That’s for sure. BUT LOVE. Fear works in the short-term.
But tears us down in the long-term. Love can be messy and nuanced and difficult and just plain H-A-R-D in the short-term. It takes time. It takes down-and-dirty, nitty-gritty relationship. It takes peeling back the layers of the outer and seeing what’s going on inside. It take stepping out into discomfort. It takes work. It takes a slow sifting through all the grays. But LOVE WINS in the long-term. Hands down.
Period.
End of story. DO NOT BE AFRAID. (Jesus) LOVE > FEAR.
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