men
A for-men-only feature dealing with basic Christianity/by Lloyd Hamill
How Not to
Escape Fear
vital part of religion nowadays seems to fall in the ^^peace-of-mind category. There’s nothing wrong with this up to a certain point. I’ve never known a man who doesn’t want solid peace of mind. But it seems to me we have to be mighty certain just what role religion is to play in getting this peace. If we get headed cockeyed here we can become deeply disillusioned. Fear is no stranger to the man who gets out and faces life squarely. And he knows for certain that fear isn’t going to disappear by starting each day mumbling some hocus-pocus like, "Every day in every way I’m getting better and better.” The minister or writer who dishes out these kind of positive-thinking cliches hardly merits a hearing. Pretending is for children, not men. Far better to face up to the reality of fear. I recall a part of our basic training in the Signal Corps during the early part of World War II was the infiltration course. It was a cold, gray December day when our com pany’s turn came to go through the course. We had to crawl several hundred yards under simulated battle conditions. There was from two to six inches of gooey, bone-chilling mud covering the entire course. As we crawled in and out of trenches and around barbed wire entanglements, planted explosives erupted on all sides. A fighter plane roared barely 30 feet above us spraying a thick layer o f smoke. And from the side, machine gunners were pouring a steady cover of fire just three feet above the ground. It was a nightmare of mud and smoke and explosions and machine gun fire. The going was slow and there was not a second’s let up. I doubt if there was a fellow going through the course that afternoon who wasn’t afraid. And there was nothing you could do about it. You couldn’t back out. You couldn’t ignore your fear. You couldn’t repress it. You had to either go through the ordeal or crack up. And each time a few would crack up. They’d become either paralyzed with fear and hug the mud until the firing was over or they’d stampede. And to stampede was fatal. The pressure on these fellows would get so great they could stand it no longer and they would leap to their feet in an effort to
run for it. The live machine gun fire would instantly tear them apart. Fear is that way. Let it paralyze you and you’re immobi lized — useless. Let it stampede you and it tears you apart emotionally. What we actually need is not an escape from fear but an adequate way to handle it. Fear confronts us solidly and boldly. We can’t escape it. Maybe our health is cracking up. Maybe our marriage isn’t what we know it could be. Maybe our job has us in a vise-tight grip of despair. You know your particular fear. It’s real. And you know something’s got to be done about it. Is the answer to be found in turning to religion ? I don’t know. It depends on several factors. If it’s a desperation grasp aimed solely at finding a solution to a particular fear I doubt if you’ll find much genuine help. It would seem from the Bible record that God looks at the whole man. When you get around to thinking through your personal relation ship to God you’re apt to find the particular fear or cir cumstance that got you thinking is not necessarily central to your problem. Your problem is your total self. Read the Gospel of St. John in the Bible to find out how to have your total self absolutely transformed through faith in Jesus Christ. Christ said, "I will never refuse anyone who comes to Me.” Millions of men — the great, the near great, the ordinary — have come to God through Jesus Christ. They came to have their total life transformed — literally reborn by the power of God. And when this has taken place we have an answer for each fear as it arises. And this answer is in the words God spoke to Isaiah, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand o f my righteousness.” God created you and me. And when we are in a right relationship to Him it is the most natural thing in the world to face fear squarely; head on. It gives a man a solid feeling to know the One who made him is personally guid ing him through the immediate need.
(Those desiring additional help or spiritual counsel may write to Mr. Hamill in care of The King’s Business, 558 So. Hope St., Los Angeles 17. A free copy of the Gospel of John [ with simplified explanations ] will also he sent upon request.)
The King's Business/December 1957
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