When It Is Too Much to Bear
“
For the first time this year, I
fully felt my fear. I couldn’t avoid it any longer.”
-Abigail Cole Hardin, CLC; PNLP
By Abigail Cole Hardin, CLC; PNLP
We’re at the point now that we have heard so many interpretations of COVID-19 that it is too much.
In a digital society, we have news and comments and posts and opinions flooding our minds. We do not even know what we will see when we pull out our phones and open our media outlets. We do not know how people will react to our personal views or interpretations of what we consume. We do not know if it is safe to even utter our fear or admit that we don’t have all the answers.
It is too much to bear.
I noticed it for myself when I watched a video news source that terrified me. I questioned: if any part was true—how scary would that be? My mind started to go down a path of “what ifs” or “what can I do” or “what is the world coming to” or “will I ever be safe” and “what will I do if this truly is my new normal.” I began to panic. With my mind racing, I tried to search for answers or ways to reason within myself to calm myself.
I had been avoiding for so long thinking of the weight and magnitude of this pandemic, racial injustice, fires, hurricanes, sex trafficking, broken economies, deaths, losses, and emotional turmoil that the world is going through in just a matter of months.
For the first time this year, I fully felt my fear. I couldn’t avoid it any longer.
As humans we relate to animals in the fact that we are all wired to survive. So, whenever our safety feels threatened, we go to the most primitive part of our brains.
In this part of our brain, we do not ask questions. We do not pause to think. And we do not actively listen.
Instead, we react in either a fight, flight, fawn, or freeze mode (which you can read more about in Let’s Talk Politics with our Prefrontal Cortex and Why We Need to Embrace More Risk). I am a total “flight mode,” yet I realized my survival strategy was not enough to keep me from feeling my fear.
The bottom line is that we resort to our animalistic nature versus our God-bearing image.
Genesis 5:1 says, “…In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.” Thus, we were made in the likeness of God—key word, likeness.
Like God, we are wired to be in relationship.
Like God, we can create and problem-solve.
Like God, we can love and accept one another.
Like God, we can reason and analyze.
But we ARE NOT God, and we CAN NEVER BE a substitute for God.
We will never be all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. Yet, in our sin nature, we believe we can be our own answer. We put ourselves in God’s place, and all chaos breaks loose.
I think 2020 is a pretty clear picture of chaos. With all the uncertainty, we have locked into our fear, and we cannot reason when we are afraid!
The video I watched put me in such fear I could not deny it. Yet when I finally acknowledged the depth of my fear, I realized I was never meant to have all the answers to keep myself safe.
I was made to seek the ultimate answer—Christ. He is my safety.
Christians get the option not to act like fearful sheep. Instead, we can trust and rest in the love of the Good Shepherd.
We are the ones who actually can model what Christ purchased for us—freedom. But that is our choice.
I had to get back to this truth by turning to Scripture. I naturally opened up to Psalms and there the Lord had the perfect answer to all my fears:
“The Lord shatters the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. But the Lord’s plans STAND FIRM FOREVER; His intentions can never be shaken...
We depend on the Lord alone to save us. ONLY he can help us, protecting us like a shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we are trusting in his holy name.
Let your UNFAILING LOVE surround us, Lord, for our Hope is in you ALONE.”
- Psalm 33:10-11, 20-22 (NLT)
Christians, don’t you see?
We have all the answers we need because we have the ultimate answer—Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior!
He bridges the gap for us to be in full relationship with God the Father who cannot be shaken! And we can have peace that transcends all understanding because He has given us the Holy Spirit to comfort us through all of our fears and anxieties.
The key is to acknowledge the depth of your fear, and run to the Father like a little child trembling from a nightmare.
This is never too much for Him to bear. He welcomes you with open arms.
When we acknowledge who we are, we realize two truths: we are like God yet we are prone to fear.
Thus, we must put our hope in God Himself who is the answer to all of our fears.
“Cast [-ing] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
Abigail Cole Hardin is a Certified Life Coach and a Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner for Hardin Life Resources
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