I read an ancient Arabic story the other day about a merchant traveller with his caravan on his way to Baghdad. Half way to his destination the merchant encounters Pestilence who informs him that he too is on his way to Baghdad. Pestilence’s reason for travelling there is to kill five thousand people. Having delivered that piece of stunning news Pestilence disappears and the merchant continues his trip.
We next see the merchant returning from Baghdad where again he is intercepted by Pestilence. The merchant is angry.
“You lied to me,” he roars at Pestilence. “You told me you would kill five thousand people, but fifty thousand are dead.”
Pestilence patiently replies, “I told you no lie. I said I would kill five thousand people, and I have killed exactly five thousand people.” There is a pause and then he completes the information: “Fear killed the rest.”
Fear? Yes, fear – a word that is now synonymous with all that is problematic with being human. For some fear is the root disease behind all our maladies. It is fear that causes us to do wrong and hurt others as we seek to secure ourselves; fear that causes stress and leads to all sorts of illnesses; and fear that leads us to react to situations instead of being creative about them.
So what is the antidote to fear? The antidote is the same as it always has been: trust. First, trust in God. This is easy to say, but much more difficult to do. Can we accept the wisdom of the universe and rejoice in all our circumstances, not just the good or the fun bits?
Second, trust in others. Most people would agree that over the last fifty years there has been a serious deterioration in trust between peoples and communities. Yet our only real security – whose lack ignites fear – is with other people; if we cannot trust others we are destined to a life of fear, of always covering our back, of checking up on, of imagining the worst. How do we establish trust
between people?
Finally, trust in our Self – in our essence, or our soul. We need to enter our own souls and find there goodness and worth – and so the strength to face anything. Of course, the heart has traditionally been the seat of the soul, and that is why when we trust the in our Self we find courage. Courage, etymologically, derives from the heart. Trust in our Self, then, produces courage, which is also an
antidote to fear.
And why is this so important – because we are starting a new year with many new challenges. The economic meltdown could be cause enough to despair. Then again the situation in many areas of the world – North Korea at the moment and in some other states like Iran – leads one to fear the outbreak of a wider war. The fall in living standards, the chronic indebtedness of individuals, the scarcity of jobs and civil unrest, the general malaise of hopelessness partly originated by lack of any belief systems in the West, and if these weren’t enough on their own to inspire fear, there is the Mayan prophecy about the end of the world this coming December!
So, let us resist to the temptation to live in fear. Instead we must trust in God, learn to trust others, and most importantly find that trust of our Self within our Self, so that we can face 2012 with courage and confidence. And in doing so, prevail.
The Mapping Motivation Series 