F. E. A. R.

Fear. We are all afraid of something, perhaps many things, certainly of the unknown – and there is much that is unknown to us. That is simply a fact of life. It is how we deal with these fears that is important, vital even, to our physical, mental and spiritual well-being. Fear can paralyze us and, at times, does. Fear of the unknown makes us stop in our tracks so much so that we are immobilized. Such is the power of fear.

Lest we think fear is bad we need to be reminded that it is not, certainly not always and often for the better. It keeps us from heading down the wrong and dangerous road. It keeps us from acts of foolishness that, in the end, would bring harm to ourselves and, even worse, to those we love. We know this to be true because there have been times when we went against our better judgment and brushed fear of consequences aside and had to pay the piper for our foolishness.

But there is another kind of fear that is insidious and, sadly, seems to be very prevalent in our society today. It is the fear, as a colleague pointed out in a sermon I heard while on a busman’s holiday one Sunday, that is engendered from F. E. A. R.: False Evidence Appearing Real. It has become such that we are not sure any more about what is true and what is a lie. Even worse, any real truth with which we disagree is now labeled as fake, unreal, and in other words, a lie.

That should cause us to truly be afraid. When we know longer know what is true and what is not, then all we can do is live in fear. Is this what we have become as a people, as a nation? Is every truth with which we disagree now somehow false simply because we disagree with it or because it makes us look bad or somehow less? Is this how our government wants us to live?

So who’s telling the truth anymore? Remember Pilate asking Jesus “What is truth?”? Pilate’s obvious unsated implication was that “truth is what I say it is because I am the one in power. That’s the truth!” So is what is true what the one in power says is true even if there is false evidence appearing real to the contrary? Is what is true only that which makes us look good and that which doesn’t obviously a lie?

President Franklin Roosevelt, in the midst of the Great Depression, when millions of people lived in real fear because they did not know where their next meal was coming from, told the people that they “have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Real fear, not fake fear, fear arising out of someone’s need to control. Roosevelt was encouraging the people to not allow fear to so overwhelm them that they lost all hope. Hope overcomes fear, real fear, not false evidence (meaning lies) that appear to be real but are simply meant to make us afraid.

I am not afraid, F.E.A.R. aside. I live in hope. The truth, not lies, always wins in the end.