Yesterday, my dog kept running away from an annoying fly in our home.
She is prone to do this and will even come to my husband or I, whoever will pay attention to her, and bark at us about it. It’s quite cute and humorous to watch.
On this particular afternoon, I was in the middle of editing a podcast episode and laughed as she hopped up onto my lap trying to escape this little fly. She refused to budge and my laughter only increased as the absurdity of her fear was painstakingly obvious. Reality is is that she is much more powerful and larger than the threat of any tiny fly.
And it was then that I heard an interesting thing from the Lord.
He told me I was no different in my behavior. And I immediately knew what He was talking about because I had just been mulling over in my mind earlier about something I needed to do, but was held back by fear. (This little something would be so embarrassing if I told you, and so I will save myself the shame and keep that part to myself;)
I knew in the logical part of my brain that I was allowing something that was not a real threat to hold me in place. Yet, another part of my brain, the survival part, felt a real threat and that left me frozen.
My brain perceived a threat because of my past experiences that felt similar to this one where I was eventually mistreated and misunderstood. I was obviously triggered. Reality was that this was an entirely different situation that needed a mature and healthy response from me.
If the survival part of your brain has been stimulated too often, like mine has, your brain might only know how to function out of this mode alone. You can fall into a trap you create for yourself when you see all of your present experiences through the lens of your past pain.
Knowing full well that my brain is still in its healing process, I am able to tell myself that what reality my brain is perceiving could very likely be a false reality. I am actually not under a real threat but safe.
The Lord graciously told me that I was responding to a present situation in this way. I was then able to push past my fear and act as I knew I should.
The positive result of following through with what I needed to do was clearly evident that my fear was indeed pointless and an empty threat.
Was I also running away from an empty threat like my dog was? Fearful of something that was only in my mind, but not in reality?
Yes, yes I was.
I also believe the enemy takes advantage of this struggle we might have. The enemy knows our weaknesses and he will parade around us in the guise of what we are very afraid of, whether that be fear of making friendships or fear of trying something new.
Yet, when we can quiet ourselves enough to discern the difference between reality and a perceived threat in our minds, we can respond in a more healthy way.
We no longer have a spirit of fear as believers in Christ. Let us not allow fear to rule us and keep us from doing what we know we should do.