Fear can immobilize you

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

Every time we turn on television, we hear “Breaking News” and it’s always something worse than the last news. It’s beginning to make many fearful of what could possibly be next. Even former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ventured out this week to say, “Without personal honor there is no leadership.” I think that was his way of saying our country is currently leaderless.

When we think about all that’s going on that’s a scary thought. Rex went on to say that we have a growing crisis of ethics and integrity. He invoked the Bible by saying, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” If we’re free, we should have no fear. Fear negatively impacts our health. Yet, I see many people experiencing fear every time they hear what #45 has done or said.

Let’s think about what the Bible says about fear. In 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT), we’re told “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” If we believe that, why are we allowing fear to immobilize us? Power, love and self-discipline can get us through this if we unite against the lies we’re told daily by the man charged with leading our nation. As #45 pushes against all that’s good about our nation, let us push back just as hard against the evil he’s spewing against just about every bit of progress we’ve made in perfecting our union.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT), tells us, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” Yes, we are experiencing a strange and challenging season under #45, but if we reject the bad behavior he’s exhibiting, and do what we know to be right, we can get through this. When he goes low, as our beloved First Lady Michelle Obama once said, let us go high. Let us resolve to comfort those #45 denigrates. Let us uplift those he puts down. Let us love those against whom he spews hate. We must speak out when we hear #45’s hateful rhetoric or our silence is giving consent to what he is saying and what he is doing. Reject #45 and all the uncouth silliness for which he stands. I know it’s frustrating, but we can’t go back to where #45 wants to take us.

Our ancestors of all races, colors, creeds worked too hard to allow people like #45 to succeed. We’re better than he’s painting our country to be. Yes, the world is laughing at us, but let’s meet the challenges with which we are presented and turn them to good. Let’s look at where we are as a season now and believe there’s light at the end of the tunnel as we leave this one and enter another season.

Instead of succumbing to hate, chaos and fear we’re facing, let’s rise above it and believe that we’re coming into a new season as director Bob Mueller and his team prove not only to #45’s staunch supporters, but to people around the world that the rest of us are not like that. I believe God has got this and it’s just a matter of time before we move into a better season. We just have to keep the faith.

Let us resist the evil of those who call themselves leaders. As Dick Gregory always taught us, “Hate, jealousy, anger and fear are our enemies. All of them negatively impact our health and well-being.” Knowing that no lie lives forever (and there’ve been many from #45 and his team), let us have no fear because no season lasts forever.

This article originally published in the May 28, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.