蜜芽传媒

The 8 o鈥檆lock news is approaching. Sometimes, you need to be brave just to listen to the headlines. But it鈥檚 a mistake to try and hide from what鈥檚 going on in the world. As J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, 鈥淎 man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.鈥�

We all know that the world can be a wonderful place. But it has also always been a frightening place.
Most frightening right now 鈥� after decades of relative, if uneasy stability 鈥� are the radical changes in the world order. They are happening so quickly and dramatically that even the experts can鈥檛 predict what will happen next.

The world鈥檚 dominant fears today are radically different from the universal fear we experienced five years ago. Then, it was Covid. Surprisingly, the pandemic and its lasting consequences play little part in current narratives 鈥� it could be that we鈥檇 like to pretend that it never happened. The truth is that lockdown changed us all. Fear was undoubtedly a factor in 2020, and it will be a factor in our responses to the very real possibility of a future pandemic.

Back in 1987, it wasn鈥檛 a virus, but a serious car accident that almost deprived me of the ability to breathe without the aid of a machine. That was a prospect that filled me with fear, though I never lost my faith. For me, the turning point came with some perceptive advice from a senior doctor. He wanted me to breathe into a medicine ball in an attempt to inflate my one remaining lung. Recognising my faith, he told me to pray first. I prayed very hard and blew 鈥� as hard as I possibly could 鈥� into the medicine ball 鈥� It worked.

Now I know that will not be everyone鈥檚 experience, but鈥�Some words from the Book of Timothy come to my mind. "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind."

Still more than that, I believe that God has given us a soul. Fear can attack our body, our intellect and our emotions, but our soul exists on a different plane that only we can access.
If we succeed in finding ways of tapping into our soul, we can put our fears into context and make ourselves at least a little braver, more able to formulate strategies for survival or even to learn to prevail.

You will soon hear the news. The headlines might turn out to be daunting.
But 鈥�This is as good a time as any to start putting your fears aside.

Show less