Can Fear Be a Good Thing?
Often when one speaks of fear there are many appalling reactions especially in the context of religion. Fear can conjure up many kinds of reactions and feelings in the human heart. It is an element in life where the natural reaction is to flee. In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis uses fear in a very unique way as in regards to something positive. A ghost had been frightened by Unicorns in the context of the story line, but there seems to be a positive purpose. The response of the Teacher gives us great insight to a higher motive behind the frightening incident. “This put me in mind to ask my Teacher what he thought of the affair with the Unicorns. It will maybe have succeeded, he said, ye will have divined that he meant to frighten her, not that fear itself could make her less a Ghost, but if it took her mind a moment off herself, there might, in that moment, be a chance. I have seen them saved so.” [1]
The question arises can fear be used in a positive sense? What is that purpose? Can God use fear as a tool not to frighten us for frightening sake but rather to move us closer to Him? What can be revealed to us in our moment of fear? There are three major things that can be positive as a result of fear. The first is that fear can be an unlocking mechanism in where a person lives. The second positive aspect of fear is that it can reveal our limitations and what often hinders us from seeing what God is trying to show. The third is that it forces the one afraid to look beyond themselves and reach out for help. Hopefully these three aspects of fear will demonstrate how God can and will use fear as a tool for positive responses instead of the often negative connotation which is often accompanied in most cases of fear.
The first positive aspect of fear is that it can be an unlocking mechanism. What does this mean? Often times the human experience can be limited to traditions, comfort zones, mindless routines, daily rituals, and the like. The often temptation is to live life in a box. God can often be trying to send us signs and pointers to something more that He desires, but the real problem is that it is completely over looked or just not seen at all. As with the ghost in the book, the point of fear was to shake her out of her narcissism. The great temptation for everyone is that we believe that it is “our” world and the rest of the inhabitants of the world are just living in it. The possessiveness of life can be a blinder because the thought is that life belongs simply to the one living it. The fact is there sometimes has to be a force outside of the mundane life experience to shake the experience beyond routine. This is where fear can play a positive role. Fear can come through the loss of a job, stock market crash, or whatever keeps the focus away from it being on God. Each person has faith, but the question lies in what or where faith is placed. When the object of faith is destroyed for whatever reason then fear can move us outside of ourselves to reveal limitations.
The second positive aspect of fear is not only to unlock one from the comfort zones of life, but also to show our limitations. Fear could be defined as a powerless prevention over a particular presupposition. What creates fear? It is the realization that one has no power or control over an event or cause in the immediate future. The emotional sense of fear can be very exciting. This can be the reason horror flicks are so popular, but this is obviously a false sense of fear because one has control to turn the movie off whereas in real fear one lacks control. This is the very reason why death is mankind’s greatest fear because no one has control over it. It comes to everyone. If mankind could control death, it would no longer be an unknown and could no longer create fear. This is the confidence of the gospel because a Christian no longer has reason to fear death because they have placed their faith in the One who has control over death, who actually defeated death’s grip. To recognize the need for faith in Christ one has to come from a place of understanding the limitations each person faces within themselves. Arrogance or pride comes with the idea that there are no limitations or a false sense of those limitations. Dare devils by in large have a false sense of those limitations and often fall victim to the result of not properly adhering to those limitations. Once limitations are realized then one is in the proper place to experience what God is trying to bring to us.
The third positive aspect of fear is looking beyond for answers once our limitations have been understood. This is the full culmination of God’s purpose of fear. It is for the one afraid to reach out to Him. Fear shakes the normal routine and comfort zones that often plague a life from ever coming to a place of desiring to reach out to God. Once these foundational comfort zones are rattled by some type of fear then a person can realize there is a need to look beyond oneself and begin to reach out in God’s direction. The world saw this very thing play out on September 12, 2001 after the September 11 attacks in New York. This fear brought people to a place of surrender and desire to look to God. The greatest temptation of mankind has been the same temptation since the Garden of Eden which is to place man in the place of God where mankind is playing the god of God. Looking at society today it is easy to see mankind’s self worship. Simply walk to the checkout counter at any local grocery market. Only God has the answers to life’s great dilemmas, and mankind’s only hope is to look to Him, but the narcissistic behavior becomes the road block to reaching out to God. He, understanding the emotion and the issues of mankind, can use fear to take our eyes off of self and place them where they should have been all along which is back on Him. God can and will use fear as a tool to motivate mankind to reach out to Him because ultimately He has already reached out to mankind.
In conclusion, fear can be a mean, nasty sort of emotion within itself if there is no safe place to flee. God uses fear for mankind to recognize that He is that safe place and desires us to flee to Him. C.S. Lewis demonstrated in this small example such a great truth of God. Showing how God can use the fears of everyday life as His tool to bring mankind back to Him. The heartbreak of it all for God is that some adhere and some simply fall quickly back to where it was they were when they were not reaching out to Him. God is in no way in the spook business, but He is in the business of revealing who He is and who each individual in life tend to be. At the end of it all after fear unlocks us from our comfort zones, reveals our limitations, and ultimately forces us to reach out to Him then the world should listen to the words of the ancient Psalmist when God says, “Be still and know that I am God.” [1] CS Lewis The Great Divorce
