Fear
There's a lot of fear in the world today. Words like terror, distress, anxiety, panic, apprehension, and alarm seem to have become the dominant lyrics of a new song that began to be sung the world over September 11, 2001. As a result, our loving world of tolerance and diversity has begun to classify what used to be innocent pranks, jokes, or just part of growing up, as hate and criminal behavior. This is all very interesting because true love and acceptance replace fear because genuine love is the exact opposite of hate.
Now I'm not implying there aren't hateful people in the world who desire nothing more than to inflict harm on others. And because of this we must protect ourselves, even to the point of being proactive at times. But when those who desire to protect us from ourselves redefine what has always been considered jest, but now must be treated as hatred, society has digressed rather than progressed.
Abraham Maslow once said, and rightfully so, that,
"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again while fear must be overcome again and again."
Today folks have allowed the media and their servants (politicians, teachers, preachers, regulators, transportation officials, bankers and financial planners) to perpetuate fear...fear of civil rights violations, fear of ignorance, fear of eternity, fear of terrorism, fear of poverty, fear of failure, fear of success, etc.! And these fears, as all fear, naturally breed contempt, hate and aggression rather than respect, love and progression. Therefore, instead of going forward in growth over the past decade we have digressed. As we have clung to safety our growth has been hampered. And because people who remain fearful will never experience the joys of accomplishment it's time to put those fears to rest and participate in some real lovin'.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote that "To learn, you must listen. To improve, you must try." And that is as excitingly truthful today as it was 200 years ago. You don't have to let your growth be hampered by the tyrants who promote fear! Fear is an emotion which anybody can overcome by choosing to practice true love. True love desires the success of others even to the point of deferring your own desires to make other peoples desires happen.
Notice I didn't say deny your own desires? That's right, I specifically said, deferring you own desires. Deferring you own desires is a sign of true love when it comes to helping others attain their own desires.
Zig Ziglar's popular phrase, "You can have anything you want in life as long as you'll just help enough other people get what they want" is absolutely true. Realizing that you need others to attain what you want and need in life is not some form of manipulative power that you use to "trick or steal" from others. Instead it is the profound realization that you need to help others attain what they desire if you're ever going to be able to reach the level of accomplishment in your own life that you desire. How wonderfully different this method is compared to using fear as a tool to manipulate others emotions in order to materially, emotionally, spiritually or physically take advantage of them.
Do you have fear(s) in your life? When do you want to stop being taken advantage of by those who wield that manipulative tool over your life? Do you know that you alone have the power to choose what you feel and what you believe? When do you want to stop denying your true desires, embrace purposeful deferment while helping others, so you can accomplish true fulfillment? When you're ready we're here to help you. Happy Independence Day!!
by Tomas McFie
