Not Out of FEAR!

I have often been made keenly aware that FEAR motivates, not only in situations, but also in life-
    orientation. 
FEAR is taught, sometimes by people in our lives and sometimes by situations in them.
FEAR leads us to defensiveness, the defending of self, sometimes applied in situations in which it is
    not only not needed, but not helpful or healthy to be fearful and defensive.
FEAR quite naturally makes us conservative - to conserve those things for ourselves that may help us
    fend off whatever perceived threats we have for our future.
FEAR encourages reservation - the reserving of ourselves from sharing, opening up and receptivity,
    so that we are closed up in our encounters with the world and the people in it.
FEAR demands an orientation all about "SELF" preservation, which leads us to be defensive,
    conservative and reserved in how we meet the world and the people in it.
FEAR inevitably leads, when it is followed as the course of one's life, to wariness with others, a lack
    of trust, suspicion in most situations, eventually hatred of some or many and sometimes the
    ruthless, aggressive attacking of others, any others, whom we perceive to be a "threat", because
    they "MIGHT" hurt us, somehow.

I like the acronym for FEAR that follows:
    False
    Evidence
    Appearing
    Real

When FEAR is that which I first meet people or situations in my life, I am meeting others and situations in my life in weakness.  I RARELY need to do so.  If I meet most people and situations in my life as one who perceives myself as being vulnerable and potentially a victim, that says a lot about how I look at myself, and NOT just how I look at the world and people in it.

I REFUSE to live my life out of a FEAR orientation.
I REFUSE to be conservative with my possessions, thoughts, kindness or feelings.
I REFUSE to be closed up because I once was hurt or could be again.
I REFUSE to be reserved in how I meet the world around me.
I REFUSE to naval gaze because I can only focus on protecting "self".
I REFUSE to hurt others around me because I perceive that they MIGHT be a threat to me.
I REFUSE to let FEAR be my orientation to the world and the people in it.

I do not VALUE living in FEAR, and the things that come out of living in FEAR.
I may be sometimes hurt, sometimes victimized, sometimes exploited, sometimes ignored or abandoned, but out of a FEAR of that, I will NOT always keep myself from fully living my life!
I will NOT keep myself from putting out into the world those things that I believe make the world a better place in which to live!  I will NOT allow FEAR to make me put out in the world the things I do not value!

So, call me a LIBERAL - generous and open with concern over the well-being of others... YES, you can label me that.  It means I am receptive and open to sharing.
I will NOT be a CONSERVATIVE, because I will NOT let my whole life orientation be formed in FEAR.

Pastor Jamie