Dec 08, 2015

Fear (5)

“All your life, you will be

faced with a choice.

You can choose love or hate….

I choose love.”

                          Johnny Cash

 

Love or Fear: Your Choice

Life s full of choices, and all meaningful events in life is filled with choices. But all choices in life boil down to only two choices: Love or Fear. All choices we make about life evolve from the choices based on love or fear. Do we choose a job because it brings in more money, or do we choose a job because it brings us more joy? Both would be nice, but seldom is it that kind of choice. I have been fortunate to have both.

Love and Fear are both choices. They are not random events but are often the stark reality we face in almost all of life’s major events, and in many of the minor events. Even the simple choices of a career stem from love or fear. I noticed when I went to school that many, if not most, of my fellow engineering freshman students were in engineering to make more money, as engineering was one of the better paying careers at that time. I was in engineering because I loved the challenges and the joy of creating. Most of those students switched out to other majors by the end of the second year (125 freshman engineers; only 28 in my graduating class). When I returned for my 40^th class reunion I was curious what happened to those members of the class. The answer was that every single one who graduated as engineers but were not there for the love of engineering had moved into other fields, usually far away from engineering such as insurance – and were much happier than they had found themselves as engineers.

Even when we choose our life’s mate, do we choose someone so we will not be lonely or because it is expected of us or do we choose that person because they set us on fire; both inside and outside. The choice will set the pattern for happiness in life for the length of your involvement with that person, in marriage or not.

Fear is a response from the Instinctual (fight or flight center) Center, and is one of the quickest to hit us in the face, stemming from our cave person days, when fast response to dangers was a requirement. But we still have a choice to continue in the vein of fear or choose love; it is always a choice. Jesus was always saying that we should choose love; what is our response?

Choosing fear brings anger, anxiety, and worry to the front, and freezes us in a closed cycle that shortens our life through stress, elevated blood pressure, and tension throughout our bodies. Fear generates adrenalin and other stress related hormones on a constant basis, when they were meant to be there only under the immediate threat and then dispersed. Otherwise the constant presence of fear related hormones lower our resistance to disease and makes us susceptible to heart attacks and strokes. A detailed description of the damage fear brings to the human body, in biological terms, can be found in Chapter 6 of the book “The Biology of Belief” by Bruce H. Lipton, PhD.

Choosing Love does just the opposite to our bodies; reducing stress and all the related stress hormones to our bodies, and lets the natural rhythms of our systems run our bodies as they were meant to operate. Stress hormones are only meant to be used in immediate danger, and the feeding of our fears by media sources undermines the purpose and method of our physical systems, leading to dis-ease, or plain ole’ disease.

“God creates the animals;

humanity creates themselves.”

                       Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Questions to Ponder

Does the thought that you choose your anxiety level by choosing between love and fear bring you joy?

Do you see that you are responsible for your level of stress; that stress is a self-induced condition?

Do you see that by choosing stress-reducing exercises like meditation and physical exercise you can prolong your life?

Meditation

Fountain of Joy, we are grateful for the opportunity to choose Love over Fear. The freedom that choice of Love gives us in our very being is a wonder to behold. Fear tightens us inside and makes us tremble and hide deep within ourselves, shutting us out of the wonders that You give us every moment of the day. We always have the choice between Love and Fear, in every action we perform. Grant us the insight to always choose love; and if we mistakenly choose fear grant us the insight to see our choice of love is still there, for all eternity, and encourage us to choose anew.