An Image of God

February 28th, 2012

Yesterday morning the national news reported that wealthy people are more apt to lie, cheat, and steal than those of us that are not wealthy. Why? Why is that? Don’t they already have it all? This thought crossed my mind, but I let go.

Later in the afternoon I was reading with the tv on in the background. Dr. Phil was on with the mother-in-law from hell. He had her son and his wife on his left and her on his right. This woman was amazing. She’d call them ten or more times a day. Leave countless voice mails. She badgered them until they moved far away, got engaged and married without ever telling her. She lost them and couldn’t for the life of her figure out why. I caught bits and pieces of their story, but what I mostly heard was Dr. Phil’s frustration with not being able to reason with her. I was reading along in my “how to edit your own work” book when I heard Dr. Phil exclaim pretty loud, “You have to get your fear under control or you’re going to lose them for good.” Then, in a more gentle voice, with impact unique to Dr. Phil, he said, “You are behaving in this obsessive way because of your fear of losing them.” At the mention of the word fear my head snapped up. Fear is the cause of a lot of our behaviors that make messes out of certain areas of our lives.

The wealthy people? Why are they more apt to lie, cheat, and steal? Simple. They fear losing all they have. When you fear losing anything that means anything to you, you resort to extreme behaviors, usually outside of you character.

Over this past year I have not only experienced this, but recognized it before it was too late and fought my way out of it. I feel for the mother-in-law and the wealthy people. Fear incites the “king of the hill” syndrome and life suddenly becomes a fight to stay there. When we sit back and look at people who are rich and successful we tend to say “How lucky!” and “Maybe I’ll win the lottery”. Not me. Fear and the urgency to hang onto things stopped me in my tracks and spun me around in the other direction. I now make it a goal to shed what I don’t need and only keep what is necessary. I’ve learned to do it with prudence as opposed to keeping EVERYTHING out of fear of loss and using panic to do it.

I’m reading a wonderful book by Max Lucado called Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear. Lucado is one of my spiritual gurus of choice. A line from the book that impacted me was:

“Courage emerges not from increased police security, but from enhanced spiritual maturity.”

For me, that holds very true. Instead of succumbing to the fear that had me by the neck, squeezing the very life out of me, I chose to research it. In the mind of an educator, having information gives you the power to overcome. That’s one of the reasons teaching a child to read was so important to me. Having the skill of discovering information, gives a child the power to save oneself for the rest of their life.

If fear has you in it’s grip to the point where it’s crippling your daily life, stand up to it. Find out about it. Find out how it infiltrates your person without you even knowing that’s what it is. Whether it’s fear or anything else attacking your peace of mind and corrupting your joy, research it. Once you come to understand something, you take back the power it has over you. You become well-equipped to finding a way of overcoming it, rather than succumbing to it. Just the power you regain in not feeling helpless is a huge step toward recovering, repairing the damage, and saving yourself.
In this verse I’ve mentioned before:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of power, love, and self-discipline.” II Timothy 1:7

I’m thinking reading, researching, and acquiring information is part of that spirit of power God has given us. We probably should use it more.

And so, as another day goes by, sometimes God looks like Dr. Phil, and..I have written.