Let us touch on the effects of fear
Sir: “Through the jungle, very softly flits a shadow and a sigh,
He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!”

So wrote Rudyard Kipling, and this emotion of fear is a universal experience for men, women and all living creatures.

Many people have had dreams (or nightmares) in which they were running away from an impending doom or something that looks like a tragedy, hunting the soul.

But before they reach safety, they suddenly and inexplicably find their knees giving way like flowing oil, their feet clamped to the ground, and their whole being transfixed in immovable terror and consuming fright.

This dream experience is an apt image of the paralysis that fear can induce and instil in us.
As Edmund Burke, the famous Irish orator, once said, “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”

What can be the basis of this paralysis? Paul Tillich makes a distinction between fear and anxiety. He sees fear as having a definite object which can be faced, analysed, attacked and endured. But anxiety, on the other hand, has no object being the threat itself.

He goes on to talk of “the impossibility of a human being standing or facing naked anxiety for more than a flash of time. People who have experienced these moments – mystics, Martin Luther, Nietsche, Zarathustra, have told of the unimaginable horror of it.”

Tillich says that this horror is ordinarily transformed into fear of something – no matter what – so that it can become manageable. Such fear was what actually degenerated into the mind of Peter and gripped him in the courtyard up to the evil point and made him betray his Master, Christ, which was the fear of “reality” of facing the truth.

The fear of Fear itself is the beginning of wisdom.
There is an age long aphorism stating, “He that is down needs fear no fall.”
It is a general witty truth for mankind.

The greater part of our fears is entwined in the fear of death. The legendary Williams Shakespeare made mention of the crippling nature of fear in most of his classical works.
Shakespeare once said he wondered why human beings should fear death and be afraid of it as it would definitely come when it wants.

There is a particular level humans arrive at and realise the fact that the situation would not get worse further but improve by His awesome grace.

This is the peak of spiritual peace and purity with the Almighty God, a condition that transcends all human understanding and knowledge.

Man should throw away all hidden fears and anxieties in all entireties and focus all hopes and prayers on the Almighty God who makes all things possible.

And everything, all human desires would come to reality in the right season, at His convenient pace and time.

There is a Yoruba sagacious saying that, “Oluwa lo ni agbara, ko si ohun to ju agbara Olorun Oba lo!” meaning, “All powers belongs to God, and nothing is greater than Him.”

There are lots of things that bother and worry human beings on daily basis due to our ordinary mortal nature, as mere flesh.

But we should all take these pains, worries and concerns to the Higher level and realm, exactly to our Maker. God loves and cares for us all; His love hovers amazingly above and around us, so let’s put our trust, fears and hope in Him. Humans should shun wicked, evil and bad acts and focus on doing good things always.

Fear and anxiety may rear its ugly head as we all journey through life but we should focus all our hopes, challenges and tribulations on the Almighty Creator, who has the Omnipotent touch on everything concerning us. And the law of Karma also states that whatever a man sows is what he would definitely reap.

Think about it.

Segun Durowaiye can be reached via: (08055356855)