Fear is a powerful motivator. News media uses fear to draw your eyes and attention, and new phobias are discovered all the time (don’t search for trypophobia). During the month of October, many actively seek it out for entertainment.
I have my own history with fear. During high school and college, I would watch the occasional horror movie until, one day, I realized I wasn’t immune to fear. Despite the practical chances of being killed by the white noise from a TV being zero (which kids have no idea about that white noise today), those horrific images from movies would play in my mind.
At some point, I threw all my scary-movie DVDs away, and yes, I’m old enough to have had a DVD collection. There may be spiritual implications to scary movies and their connection to worry, fear, and anxiety, but for our purposes, let’s stick to a pragmatic definition.
In our day-to-day lives, there is plenty to worry about. Sickness, finances, accidents, cracking your phone screen, and the list goes on. We can do things to minimize our fear in these areas, like exercise, save money, and wear our seatbelts, but many things are out of our control — and those are the most fear-inducing.
Working at several large, evangelical churches, there is a weird twist on fear in ministry. A typical job has common worries: being laid off, coworkers plotting against you, pay cuts, but in the church, these fears take on a spiritual twist. Your level of fear becomes a barometer for your spiritual life.
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