Don’t listen.
Don’t listen to what?
Don’t listen to the voices of fear.
The voices of fear?
The voices of fear.
Let me make a confession of sorts. Fear has played a much larger role in my life than I would care to admit. The voice of fear has been a very familiar voice in my life.
Let me make an observation. Fear runs rampant in the world today. Pick up the newspaper and read all about it.
Maybe you are lucky. Maybe you aren’t hounded by the screeching, howling voices of fear. I am. At times in my life the voices of fear have been boisterous and embarassingly unruly. There have been times in my life when these scratchy and strident voices have almost paralyzed me.
Like right now.
I have allowed myself to pay too much attention to these voices. What is a stressed out and terrified, semi-paralyzed mortal to do?
In the book, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life, written by Peter Robinson, a former speechwriter for President Reagan, the author tells a story about Reagan that has helped me turn the fear volume in my life way down.
While in office, President Reagan endured constant withering criticism. The mainstream media portrayed him as a senile, blithering idiot. Yet, Reagan seemed absolutely unaffected by this withering stream of criticism. Once a world-weary journalist asked Reagan how he managed to deal with the constant barrage of criticism. Reagan answered him by reciting a humorous but powerful parable:
[Rowland] Evans was having lunch with Reagan in 1987, six years into his presidency, a milestone by which the previous five presidents had been defeated, resigned in disgrace, refused to consider reelection, or assassinated. Somehow, Reagan was shining through, making it look easy, and was enormously popular. Evans, a tough old newsman, was in awe. He looked Reagan in the eye and said, “You know, Mr. President, I’ve known you for more than twenty years. I first met you in 1966, and the amazing thing is that you don’t look any older now than you did back then. How do you do it?”
In response, Reagan offered a parable:
“Let me explain it this way. Let me tell you the story of the two psychiatrists—the old psychiatrist and the young psychiatrist—who had a practice together. They’d come into their office every day just bubbling with enthusiasm, always happy, upbeat, smiling, and chipper. Then they’d go into their separate suites and have patients come in and lie on the couch all day and talk about the woes in their lives. At 6:00 p.m. they’d come out and the young psychiatrist would be devastated, wiped out by the day, with a stomachache, and just miserable. The old psychiatrist would be just as chipper and smiling and upbeat as he was when he went in that morning. This went on for a number of months.”
“Finally one day they came out at 6:00 p.m., the young psychiatrist devastated as usual, and the old psychiatrist just as happy and smiling as he was when went in. The young psychiatrist stopped him and said, ‘I don’t understand it. We do the same thing every day, and I leave wiped out by hearing patients all day, and you come out after patients have been streaming in and out of your office just as upbeat as ever. How do you do it?’ The old psychiatrist paused a minute and said, ‘I never listen.’”
Never listen to the voices of fear.
Not all “voices” are created equal. We need to be selectively hard of hearing in order to tune out the voices of fear. Certainly, the clients of the older psychiatrist shelling out $400/hour would not find their psychiatrist’s failure to listen very funny. Obviously, that is not the point of the parable. The point is not all noise in this fearful world of ours is meant to be listened to. We don’t have to, nor should we listen to the baleful and freakishly fearful voices bombarding our sensitive spiritual auditory systems.
Amongst the cacophony of fearsome noise there are, I am pleased to announce, soothing, helpful and healing voices that will lead us to happiness and serenity. They will take us to our happy place.
God is trying to talk to all of us.
The problem is God’s voice, the voice of the Spirit, is not a loud and brassy voice. It is a small, still voice. If we don’t manage to muffle the voices of fear in our minds, there is a really good chance they will drown out this still, small voice.
Selective listening, spiritually selective and skillful listening is required in order to listen to the gentle enticings of the Spirit. Spiritually selective listening will bring us hope and divine help.
Don’t listen to the screeching and nerve-jangling voice of fear. It’s not worth listening to. Turn down the volume of fear and prepare yourself to listen to the healing and soothing voice of God!
