May is mental health awareness month and for some reason I’ve been thinking about fear a lot.
Maybe it’s because I know so many people who are struggling right now. People they know and love are sick and struggling and they can’t do anything to help them. That’s fear.
I’ve learned a lot about fear over the years. For a long time I valued fear and anxiety as the same thing, but that’s not true. They are not the same.
I’ve heard an example of fear as follows:
If someone were to throw a snake into your house. That’s fear. It’s real. It’s valid. I’m not saying anxiousness and anxiety are not valid because they are. Just hear me out.
An example of anxiety is:
There may be a snake around the corner, so I won’t go. I’m just going to stay right where I am because there is no snake where I am right now. I am safe.
Why am I using snakes in my examples? I don’t really know. But that’s not the point.
“There may be” is anxiety. It’s not real. It’s not a for sure thing.
Me walking into my Spanish class filled with anxiety because it’s highly possible that my professor will ask me a question that I don’t know the answer to or I will be confused about something.
It may be “highly possibly” but it’s not 100% certain.
Anxiety/anxiousness is making up a scenario in your head and believing it to be true.
Fear is being presented with something real. You don’t have to make up that (insert name here) is in the hospital because he/she is.
You don’t have to make up that your family member is having surgery because he/she is
You don’t have to make up that you lost your job or you are financially struggling because you are.
That, my friend, is fear.
I used to be so confused because over and over in the Bible God tells us “Do Not Fear”
“Do Not be Anxious”
I always felt like, “well, I’m screwing this up.”
Let me tell you something:
God would not say (or get people to say it for him) over and over again if He knew we weren’t going to.
The Israelites had ever reason to fear because they were being held captive by Pharaoh. That is a fear. An actual reality that happened to them.
They had every right, and so do we.
I’m not giving you a bypass and saying “fear everything and make up scenarios in your head to make yourself anxious”
Absolutely not.
What I’m saying is, your fears are valid. Your anxiety, no matter how stupid the scenario you make up in your head, is valid. The truth is, the more creative you get with your scenario, the more real it becomes to you and the more it seems like something to actually fear.
God tells us to not fear because He is with us.
He tells us to cast all our anxiety on Him because He cares for us.
He tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
He doesn’t want us to fear. He doesn’t want us to cause ourselves to become anxious or create anxiety by making up stories in our minds that lead us to believe it is fear.
No, He doesn’t want that for us.
He died on the cross for our sins. He has overcome the world, so we do not have to worry.
I’m writing this because I know times are tough.
I know fear is real.
I know helplessness is real.
As someone who feels as though she is the poster child for anxiety, I am pretty good at making up scenarios, convincing myself they are real and fearing the plot of a story I made up in my mind.
I know anxiousness and anxiety are real things. So, this isn’t to reprimand you or to tell you that God is greater than all of this or to tell you that the pain and suffering you are currently feeling can’t compare to the joy that is coming.
You already know that.
If you didn’t, there’s ya go!
When Jesus was here on earth, He experienced every emotion we have ever experienced. He experienced anxiousness, He experienced fear. Therefore, He is able to empathize with us.
As I stated in the beginning, God didn’t state “do not fear” and “do not be anxious” as many times as He did in the Bible because He thought we would obey it every time.
He said it over and over because HE KNEW we were going to struggle. So He put it over and over again as a reminder to us.
“Hey, I got this. Chill out.”
I’m writing this today because I want you to know that your feelings are valid.
I want you to know the difference between anxiety and fear.
I want you to know that you are not alone.
It’s okay not to be okay.
We are human. Give yourself some grace.
Thinking of you all and praying over you.
Insta: @laurenvictoria__