How fear is like blackmail.

In this week’s video (which only came out Saturday) – we start out by hearing several different perspectives about what fear is (we hear from a Yogi, a therapist, a motivational speaker, and a medical doctor). 

Each has a different take on fear (it’s a false mindset; it’s a very real but limiting mindset; it’s caused by insecurity; it’s just the fight-or-flight mechanism). 

We’ve experienced fear to be all the above.  You probably have too.

But I’ve also experienced fear to be more than those.    As we considered in Friday’s message – God created the capacity of fear in us to serve a purpose – “Fear of the Lord is chaste.”  Building on the words of our Lord, Aquinas (and all Christian Tradition) teach that fear is healthy when it keeps us from being rash.

But there’s plenty of fear that is unhealthy.  And in all charity, that is the type of fear (gnawing and unproductive anxiety) that the gurus mentioned above are mostly talking about.

But, as you might expect, the gurus all offer different ways to deal with fear.  The Yogi wants you to realign your interior energy.  The therapist offers a brain hack (transform what causes fear to causing excitement – like, “I can’t wait to have my tax return audited!”).  And so on. 

Time for a side bar – one of the most effective plot devices is blackmail.  Steve remembers a time in 4^th grade, when he and a partner-in-crime “borrowed” the answers to an English assignment because they were running out of time to do the work themselves.  Well, one of their classmates caught them in the act and held it over their heads, threatening to tell the teacher.  That’s a rated-G version of blackmail.  Modern film noire offers endless more sordid examples.    

Often the person getting blackmailed has it coming (as did Steve and his fellow-felon), but you almost feel sympathetic for them being so entrapped.

Getting back on topic, perhaps our sympathy for the blackmailee is because we’re all blackmailed to one degree or another.

You see, the enemy uses our attachments against us, not unlike blackmail.  Blackmail is the leverage the blackmailor uses against the blackmailee to entrap them.

Just so, our attachments are how the enemy entraps us in fear – fear that we will lose the object of our attachment.  Most of us are attached to a certain extent to comfort and control.  And that is how the enemy keeps us in line.  Don’t make waves.  Don’t step out of line.  Don’t stick your neck out.  Conform!  Just live a bland, boring life.  Only whackos “listen to the Holy Spirit.”  Go along to get along. 

The universal truth about blackmail is that as soon as the cat’s out of the bag, the blackmailor is powerless.  As soon as Steve faced the music and ‘fessed up to Mrs. Rysz, the weight was lifted.    

In a similar way, if we’re not attached to our 401-K, or the number of likes we get on (anti)social media, or even to our own health (at least not in a disordered way) – then many of our greatest fears melt away and the enemy can’t use them to entrap us.

This week will offer many opportunities to chip away at our attachments, by substituting Christ for the object of the attachment (more on that in this week’s video).  Baby steps.  But each one a step away from senseless fear and toward Christ and greater freedom.

Blessings on your journey with Christ –

Steve and Karen Smith