Fear or Love?

The human psy­che is like an onion. It has many lay­ers. As you get to know some­one, you go from layer to layer. If the per­son is able to be ver­bally inti­mate, you can know them all the way down to their core. Along the way, you will find a dark layer of all sorts of prob­lems, but if you bravely con­tinue to probe beneath the lay­ers you will find a person’s essence.

Get­ting to know one’s self is not easy. We are prone to go through the lay­ers until we get to the one that fright­ens us, and then we retreat. What we do not real­ize is that if we have the courage to con­tinue hon­est self rev­e­la­tion, we get down to the very cen­ter of who we are. For some that cen­ter is love, for oth­ers it is fear.

Fear-based peo­ple have trou­ble trust­ing. For them, pos­ses­sions are a form of secu­rity rather than com­fort. It is easy for them to be para­noid. They love con­spir­acy the­o­ries and are obsessed with inequities. Jesus spoke of them in the Ser­mon on the Mount. They are fear-based. For them, the world is a place in which they are ulti­mately alone. Their “god” is dis­tant if exis­tent at all.

Love-based peo­ple are more trust­ing. They are also prone to gen­eros­ity. For them, life is a jour­ney. It is an expe­ri­ence to explore. Along the way, they earn money (maybe even lots of it) and use it to help oth­ers. Fear-based peo­ple amass only for their own imag­ined secu­rity.

Jesus was and is love-based. He loved peo­ple enough to com­fort and con­front them. He gave his life sac­ri­fi­cially for oth­ers. His essence was absolute uncon­di­tional love. Because of this, he lived life to it fullest. (For life is essen­tially love.)

Fear-based peo­ple are eas­ily manip­u­lated. Love-based peo­ple are as solid as a rock. They will endure for self and oth­ers in the most admirable ways. Their love is coura­geous. They include the despised and are able to ignore the judg­ments of oth­ers. They are not eas­ily intim­i­dated. After all, they func­tion from a dif­fer­ent core. Their expec­ta­tions are more pos­i­tive. Sac­ri­fi­cial love is more resilient and endur­ing than fear.