Fear Can Be Good

Is fear always bad ?  Can fear be healthy? I read that “fear is programmed into your nervous system, and gives you the survival instincts you need to keep yourself safe from danger. Fear is unhealthy when it makes you more cautious than you really need to be to stay safe, and when it prevents you from doing things you would otherwise enjoy.” So, fear can be good or bad. 

Years ago when I was teaching at Koinonia Academy, my co-worker brought in his pet Tarantula. ”Ignatius or “Iggy” for short, was a frightening looking spider. Iggy ate live grasshoppers. It was amazing to watch. The grasshopper was plopped into the cage and would jump around, thinking he was in for a walk in the park. He would bump into Iggy, jump over him,…. you could almost hear him “whistling”. Iggy would not move a muscle, almost like a rock. Then after a few minutes, Iggy would spring like lightening and Gary the Grasshopper was finished. Gary had absolutely no fear of Iggy…but he should have. Sometimes we are wise to have some fear…. not a paralyzing type of fear, but an awareness that this situation is dangerous and I need to be careful.

We should have a healthy fear of falling into sin…… a fear that causes us to be aware of situations that could end badly for us. A healthy fear can help us identify occasions of sins…occasions that can lead into sin. Look over the Seven Capital Sins, pride, envy, gluttony, lust, greed, sloth, wrath, and take appropriate cautions.  If I have a weakness of overeating, aka “gluttony”, I really shouldn’t load up the freezer with gallons of ice cream. If you have trouble with alcohol, perhaps you should reconsider working the Friday night shift at Paddy’s Pub. Selecting the “unlimited channel option on your T.V. if you are struggling with purity, is not wise. I think you get the idea.

So, a  healthy fear is a good thing and should cause us to take appropriate actions that can guard us from danger. If we do this we will land in a good place, certainly a better place than Gary the Grasshopper.  And that is very good news.