Reflections Upon 2 Timothy 1:7 – Part Three

 

“For God had not given us a spirit of fear but love, power and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7) – Part Three

 

Interestingly, our fears indicate potential strengths. Norman Vincent Peale, the late venerable Pastor of Marble Collegiate Church and author of more than forty books on the necessity of maintaining a positive mental attitude and implementing the power of positive thinking, posits “Do the thing that you most fear and the death of fear itself is certain.” David, the little shepherd boy who relies on the strength and power of God’s Name, defeats the real enemy, fear, before he confronts Goliath. Unlike the paralyzed and frightened men of Israel’s army, David does not allow his fear to prevent him from fighting. Each morning, many disciples wake up and immediately enter a fight with the Goliath that yells across the Valley of Bacca that exists between their ears and within their hearts. David’s example teaches us to defeat fear to eliminate adversities. Confronting fears transforms them from liabilities into assets. Mel Robbins, prominent motivational speaker and life coach, defines courage as the willingness to try. She insists minimal bravery is necessary to triumph over any fears.

 

Personally, I recall a previous job in which my supervisor and head of the department ruled with an iron fist. She relished any opportunity to intimidate any employee. She particularly and sadistically enjoyed threatening people with termination. She escalated small incidents of miscommunication and harmless errors to enable this serious threat. She demonstrated a wholesale disregard for her subordinates and the well-being of their families when she made such threats to their livelihoods and quality of life.  I became a consistent recipient of this immoral and unethical pattern of behavior. However, an internal irony occurred after a year of this obnoxious supervisory conduct. Tired of receiving these threats, I straightforwardly confronted this supervisor. I told her that I was no longer afraid of her. Her excessive use of threats weakened their intention and force. Ironically, she empowered me with the power to fight her. My fears and resulting depression transformed into anger, repulsion and intensity to fight. I retained legal counsel and meticulously fought any further intimidating tactics prior to my departure from that job. My experience illustrates God’s power to demolish fear and change it into an inner resource. Human beings are not meant to live in fear.

 

The life of the British psychoanalyst, developmental theorist and writer, D. W. Winnicott, depicts love’s power to heal, redeem and create. Rarely does anyone create anything meaningful or enduring out of ear. Fear and faith cannot coexist spatially parallel to darkness and light. Faith in God’s love as experienced in vibrant human relationships empowers disciples to create, design, invent, envision and innovate. Love possesses the power to destroy fear and other destructive forces. Sometimes, inability to create, paralysis and lack of productivity ensue when fear and lovelessness predominate. Paul accordingly encourages Timothy to seek refuge in God’s unfailing love. His protégé will fulfill his ministry’s mission and purpose if he retreats to the safety and care of God’s empowering love. Winnicott suffered thoroughgoing personal, physical and professional impotence in his first marriage. Biographers and other analysts characterize that relationship as loveless, passionless and lifeless. Duty and conventional social mores compelled his commitment notwithstanding the dearth of his marriage. He remarried after a period as a widower. In contrast, Winnicott’s second marriage evolved into a rejuvenating and impassioned relationship upon which he made an enduring contribution to psychoanalysis and developmental theory. The energy of his love fueled his thinking, writing, analytic practice, teaching and scholarship. His story attests to the power of love. God has not given any disciple a spirit of fear but love, power and a sound mind. Fear impedes self-realization and achieving personal destiny. Genuine reliance upon God’s unfailing love empowers disciples in attaining these two existential milestones.