The Shelf Life of Fear

The uncertainty of the these past 17 months seems only to outdo itself each day as more problems arise in the markets and more policies are announced to spend us out of this mess.... Then news breaks of the next big scandal or mismanagement of the American tax dollar. All in all the average American seems a little uptight. They seem uptight about whether or not they'll get laid off, uptight about how to pay their bills and mortgages on reduced wages, and uptight about having lost their life savings. Those feelings of uncertainty seem to be transitioning into fear for many Americans. College students are afraid they won't get a job after graduation to pay off student debt. Moms are afraid that we are paralyzing our children by creating more national debt than we can pay off. Conservatives are afraid that America will be a "Social Democracy" instead of the Republic they see created in the Constitution. China is afraid that America won't be able to honor its debt. Investors are afraid that our determination to print more Dollars will cause inflation to outpace even the best investments. Those who work for bonuses instead of salary are afraid that the IRS will be used as a weapon against them. And the fear born of uncertainty is a bigger problem perhaps than any of the problems that we face. This is because fear has a short shelf life. There are biological and psychological reasons that we cannot stand being in a state of fear for prolonged periods of time. We have a tendency to either shut down or do something about it. Now we are seeing liberals protesting outside the houses of civilian bank execs' houses. We are seeing conservatives having hundreds of "tea parties" to protest the way tax dollars are being spent. It seems only a matter of time before someone does something extreme. The depression accounted for many suicides and high crime levels. What is certain here is that the fear of many is now tranforming into a very active (and possibly dangerous) public scene. I know many that read this blog share the uneasiness that comes from troubling economic times. I also know that each of you can be an example to your neighbors that faith and cooler heads will prevail in this mess, "for God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Tim 1:7)