Faith and Fear Are the Same Thing
Finding the Right Words Day #11: FEAR
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”
My dad told me that when he was dropping me off at the bus station in 2014. I had been living with my mom in Hampton for a year after graduating college. I was on my way to up north to look for a job. And my dad dropped that little gem of encouragement. Somewhere along the line in all the years since then, I forgot the “hope for the best part” and spent the majority of my 20s (and now my 30s) preparing for the worst of life, expecting the ground to fall out from under me, determined not to be caught off guard by anything that could derail my dreams.
The only thing is, once those dreams came true, my fear of the worst didn’t go away. And my hope for the best didn’t return. I stayed stuck in my fear of the other shoe dropping on my head and losing everything I’d ever hoped for once upon a time.
I was listening to Around the Way Curls the other week (one of my fave podcasts, def check ‘em out!) and, in an effort to encourage her co-host Shanit, Antoinette said that “faith and fear are the same thing.” That caught me off guard because good Christian will tell you that faith is the absence of fear. But when you think about it, they really are the same thing.
The Bible says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Meanwhile, fear is the belief in the unknown, the things you’d never hope for. Both represent believing in things you don’t actually know, things you can only imagine. Except one gives you power and the other takes your power away.
Why not imagine something different? Something that actually helps you more than it hurts you?
Back in 2014, my dad was just trying to tell me to believe in myself, but not to be stupid. Well, I’m not going to be stupid any more. I’m not going to waste my time, my energy, and my precious imagination thinking of all the ways I can fail. I’ma remember all the ways I already have succeeded, and I’ma believe more is coming. I’m gonna let my faith in me (and my God) be stronger than my fear of what’s happening in the world.
The unknown is coming whether you’re prepared or not. But I’m not going to be afraid of it. The future should be afraid of me, bitch!
This entry was written under the prompt FEAR, Day 11 of the Finding the Right Words 30-Day Journaling Challenge. Follow along using the graphic above and write about whatever comes to mind with the corresponding prompt. Share with me using the tag #FTRW or email me at joliedoggett [at] substack.com.
There’s no wrong way to journal. You just gotta find the right words. Happy Writing!
I love this reframe!