When fear is motivating us, all sorts of things happen. Our energy begins to deplete more quickly, we usually lose sleep, we overwork our agendas or we stall and are unable to move forward. Perhaps most treacherously, fear leads us to make decisions that we otherwise would have not made.
Fear. Creating a compulsory, demanding, reactive and protective posture against our environment. Imagine the energy required to brace against the tide of possible catastrophe and imminent disaster.
Am I exaggerating? Yes, but only a little. Allow me to present a real life scenario from a dear client to drive home the point.
She knew she was at capacity. (For a more in depth discussion on this idea, see the blog post Capacity versus Capability). But she kept driving harder and harder to the point of having a medical incident that left her family and staff scared. Yet still, she pushed harder.
By the time she arrived at her coaching session, she could barely breathe from the weight of it. She admitted the pressure she was under, the anxiety of the success and the need to do more. When she was asked to consider limiting the flow of new incoming business long enough to catch her breath, she confessed she just couldn’t do that. What prevented her? Fear. Plain and simple. When facing fear it’s important to consider the reason for it and to acknowledge its presence, but one’s personal response to fear trumps all insight and understanding. In the end, a person’s response to fear is what ultimately rules them.
“When I am afraid, I will trust in you.” Psalm 56:3
Fear will drive you hard. Or fear can make you stop dead in your tracks and freeze. There is an escape route out of the “fight or flight” cycle that leaves us breathless. When our immediate fear(s) is submitted to a greater fear of the Lord, we gain perspective. The beginning of wisdom begins to shape our responses in the midst of the fear.
We at Way of Life Coaching, LLC are challenging ourselves with what we feel is the better response, the higher response and the response of wisdom: That of letting fear put us on our knees. Our posture then demonstrates that our fear is now being intentionally placed under submission to the fear of the Lord. He becomes our Commander in Chief over this situation and over our concerns. The wicked taskmaster is ousted. The Divine Coup trumps it’s authority and protects us from often, our own worst enemy, ourselves.
Where is the wicked taskmaster of fear driving you right now? Would you be willing to try a ‘knee-bending’ rather than a ‘knee-jerk’ response to it?
Photo Credit: Denise Myers