Fear and security

Many of the same questions come up over and over again. Two that seem to be related are about fear and security. The questions are usually variations of "What positive value is missing when there is fear present? Is it just courage?" and "How does your work relate to security? Isn't security a positive value?"



To help explore these questions, I decided to look in the dictionary first, as I was actually unsure about how to define these terms.



"Fear" is often defined as a mild discomfort, or a feeling of disquiet. This surprised me, as I learned that I had confused it with "terror", a paralyzing fear. On a scale of distressing emotions, fear is somewhere around a 3, while terror would be around a 10. Panic, for what it is worth, would be a 6, or so. This is not, obviously, linguistically accurate, but just my own way of understanding the definitions I read.



"Security" is freedom from danger. One dictionary also cites it as being "foolishly" free from this concern.



After looking at the definitions of these two words, I did a quick check in various Sacred Texts for quotes regarding them, and discovered the following:

• The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.


• He who fears God fears nothing else. He who does not fear God fears all else.

Variations of these quotes appear in nearly every body of Sacred literature.


Why? Why would the fear of God be the beginning of wisdom? And why would this fear of God lead us to fear nothing else?

Obviously this is not referring to the mind-numbing, body-paralyzing terror we normally associate with the word "fear", but is more likely referring to the more-accurate definition of "reverential awe".

This insight was further reinforced by a photograph from the Hubble Space Telescope: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/html/heic0814a.html

The photograph there is an image of a galaxy cluster. The individual dots are full galaxies, not just individual stars.

So what does this have to do with the above quotes and questions?

Think about it: try to picture yourself sitting at your computer. You can picture your body, and actually imagine yourself as a presence. Now try for an aerial view, seeing yourself from above in the city in which you live. This is a little more difficult. You might be a small dot within the context of the entire city.

Now try to picture yourself from above your entire country. Could you even begin to see the dot that might be you? Can you imagine viewing yourself in terms of the entire planet? Solar system? Galaxy?

We are absurdly small, virtually as nothing. And this makes me a little uncomfortable. How will this little bit of writing, this meager thought, help change the world? And what difference will it make in terms of the universe itself? I am forced to recognize that the answer must be that it will very little difference.

So let's look at time, instead, then. What will you do today that will make a difference in a week? What are you doing with your life that will effect the planet in a year's time? Or be celebrated in a century, much a less a millennium?

These are the questions that, I think, begin to help lead us towards wisdom. After all, when we consider that all those galaxies are but a pinpoint in relation to God, or that a thousand millennia are but a moment of God's time, then we begin to realize how insignificant we are in terms of all of existence.

But now let's pause for a moment: Baha'u'llah says, "Noble have I created thee..." He does not say that we are created as nothing, but that we are noble, worthy creations of our Creator. We have something worthy to contribute.

And to best find out what it is, we need to look at the Words of our Creator.

When I think about how big God is, and how incredibly small I am, I am moved to pay more attention to what is said in Sacred Texts. After all, this is where God has "spoken" to humanity and helped show us how this universe works. If He says to pray every day, I am more inclined to do it when I realize the immensity of our Creator.

But what are the positive values missing when there is fear present? Well, none. Fear is a healthy thing, when we recall the true definition.

And when our fear is directed toward God, then we better realize how little anything else actually matters, in the long run. It is through this realization that we will not fear anything else.

I could go on quite a bit more, but this is a starting point. I would love to hear your thoughts on these few simple ideas.