Fearless

Everyone talks about being fearless.  You have to be fearless to succeed, or be fearless in order to do this or do that.  In my opinion nobody is truly fearless.  Nobody can hide from it, no fearless man exists.  You show me a fearless man and i will show you a foolish man who is so imprisoned by his own fears that he can't even admit them.  Sure, a man can conquer a fear, or act despite a fear but no one can totally eliminate fear.  It is woven in the fabric of our minds; sometimes it lies in hibernation in the recesses of our brain and sometimes it smacks us in the face.  But it  never totally goes away.  Even Mark Twain once said, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."  He understood that the absence of fear is an impossible feat.  Fear is a living breathing nightmare that exists everywhere and in every living thing.  It creeps in through the tiny cracks in our armor and lies in wait.  Fear comes in many different forms: fear of death, failure, losing everything, spiders, dogs and so on an so on.  For me i have several different fears that have been attacking my mind.  I have a fear of being insignificant, a fear of not living up to certain expectations, fear of failing as a father and a husband.  Many of you reading can probably relate and struggle with some of the same fears that i do.

So how do we conquer these fears?  People say "face your fears and they will go away".  This isn't logical to me.  How do i face me being insignificant or not living up to certain expectations?  What if my major fear was...lets say tornadoes for example.  Do i just go outside and stand in front of a F4 tornado coming down on me?  No, that's ignorance.  I think the only way to fight fear is not necessarily face it to conquer it, but acknowledge it's presence and act despite of it.  For me, that involves waking up everyday and challenging myself to become a better man, father, and husband no matter what circumstances come my way.  Sometimes i succeed and sometimes i fail, but everyday i fight.  For me, i also lean on God to help me through these days.  God tells us in Isiah 41:10, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee...".  He holds me up in times of weakness.  For those days where fear does win out, i think it is because i didn't put enough hope and faith in God; something i personally have to work on.

Don't be fooled however.  Whatever way you decide to take on fear, one thing you have to do is act.  For doing nothing at all guarantees fear will win out everytime.  It will create a prison, in which its victim cannot escape.  Trust me.  I've been there.  It's dark, cold, lonely, and paralyzing.  Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Fear defeats more people than an other thing in the world."  After being imprisoned by it and almost defeated, I completely believe he was right.  As I said at the start, nobody can ever be fearless.  We are all in a constant war with fear and must accept some battles we will win and some battles we will lose.  But we must never cease to fight.

The Victor

It spreads silently through the night
Creeping in the shadows of ignorance
The weak it picks for a fight

With such effective passion does it bring
A relentless poison with which to sting

Ever so slowly with all its might
Invading its host, outside their sight
Bravely the mind tries to fight
But the soul with no hope sees death near
As the victor explains, you can't fight fear

Breck

If you have any experience defeating your fears or disagree with my opinions please feel free to comment.  Thanks for reading.