Our culture's attention is currently dominated by the pandemic associated with the COVID19 virus and its wide-ranging impact. Earlier this week, I posted the following thoughts on Facebook. I have adapted and expanded those thoughts for this blog.
We are dealing with two viruses that threaten us. The first, of course, is the COVID19 virus. The second is seldom recognized, much less discussed. The second is the virus of fear-based thinking. In my mind, this second virus of fear-based thinking presents the greater threat. It seems to spread more rapidly than the COVID19 virus, infecting almost every person.
The capacity to experience fear is a gift that protects us (as I say in my upcoming book). However, it has a downside. Fear is a gift when it helps us recognize and react to a threat in the present moment, whether real or imagined. It protects us. But fear can be destructive when it takes control of us. We harm, even destroy, ourselves when we live in fear, out of fear, with fear. Fear was never intended to be a disposition out of which we live.
The COVID19 pandemic presents a real threat to our health and to the normal pattern of our lives. But this threat can be dealt with. Specific, clearly defined steps can be taken to protect ourselves from the virus. Such precautionary steps, we are told, will protect us from infection and prevent the spread of the virus in our society. In other words, as we follow these precautionary measures, the threat associated with COVID19 is reduced. We do not have to be afraid.
But what about the threat associated with the second virus of fear-based thinking: living in fear, out of fear, with fear? Fear-based thinking creates fear-based reactions which produce chaos. The chaos, in turn, stirs more fear-based thinking which creates more fear-based reacting which compounds the chaos even more. Fear-based thinking creates a vicious cycle of more fear-based thinking.
Fear bypasses our thinking. When we are afraid, our brain is literally off line. We simply react - automatically, without thinking. That is part of its gift. But when we live in fear, out of fear, with fear, our ability to think clearly and reasonably is thwarted. We react emotionally rather than choosing how to respond out of clearly defined principles. Fear controls what we think and do: fear-based thinking and reacting.
This displacing of clear, reasoned thinking by emotional reactivity is evident throughout our society: in the hoarding-oriented buying that is happening, in the scarcity thinking that drives the hoarding-oriented buying, in the me-and-mine mentality that turns a blind eye toward others during this time, in the polarization of the left and right in our nation, in the polarization within The UMC over LGBTQ+ issues, just to name a few.
When emotional reactivity dominates, our functioning becomes more and more immature. Polarization along with bubble-oriented thinking grows. We reject anything that does not agree with how we already think and what we already believe (confirmation bias). We become less compassionate or understanding. We are quick to judge and condemn and reject. Knee jerk reactions, quick fixes, and party-line answers become the norm. Our anxiety blocks any ability to think outside the box for creative solutions, much less bipartisan solutions. In other words, our reactivity compounds whatever problem triggered the reactivity. Einstein is credited with saying "The thinking that created the problem cannot produce the solution." Emotional reactivity keeps our thinking stuck. Fear-based thinking will not resolve any problem. It will only compound the problem.
Rabbi Ed Friedmann was known to say the impact of any challenge is determined more by OUR RESPONSE to the challenge than by the challenge itself. We often create our own trauma by our reaction (as opposed to response) to it.
When our inner disposition is driven by fear, we live as though we are powerless - like victims. We surrender our power. Our greatest power, perhaps our only real power, is over ourselves. The Apostle Paul called this kind of power self-control. I speak of it as self-awareness that leads us to self-management. The Spirit empowers us to live out of self-control. The Spirit moves us beyond fear-based thinking with its emotional reactivity into peace, thus empowering us to respond in ways that are healthy, mature, and life-giving.
The Psalmist said: God is our refuge and strength, a well-proven help in times of trouble. Therefore, we will NOT fear. (Psalm 46:1) We will not live in fear, out of fear, with fear. Through the power of the Spirit, we will manage ourselves, moving beyond fear-based thinking and emotional reactivity, so that we live out of God's peace. Only then can we be a part of the solution.
(In my book The Fruit of the Spirit: the Path That Leads to Loving as Jesus Loved, I describe the Spirit-directed process of moving beyond fear-based thinking and emotional reactivity into God's peace.)
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