Fear and the failure of self-reliance

Fears: 'We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us?'

When I'm frightened, I think a 'bad' thing is going to happen in the future.

By 'bad', I mean an event that I believe will cause me unacceptable negative emotion.

99% of the negative emotion I have ever felt has been entirely self-generated by comparing my perception of reality to how I think it should be and finding it wanting.

When I let go of the plan and cheerfully and courageously accept reality as it is, 99% of the negative emotion goes, and I discover I no longer object to the remaining 1%, seeing it, as I do, as just one colour in the pallet of emotional colours available.

To fear therefore means to conceive of a future I shall judge as unacceptable in the light of my plan for the future and to anticipate how much I will suffer because the universe will not comply.

To fear is therefore to envision a future without God, but with me attempting (and failing) to usurp God.

This is why self-reliance has failed me.

God-reliance is the only alternative: the wholehearted, cheerful, courageous acceptance of the future and the seeking only of my place within that picture, as an intelligent agent of the creative force behind the universe.

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