During this week of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be a good time to speak about how it’s possible for us to turn our deepest fears into our greatest blessings. I spoke about this on my most recent IG Live Show, but wanted to share about it here on my blog as well for those of you who either are not on Instagram or didn’t see the show.
So, why am I speaking about fear?
Because many of us are actually confronting fear right now—even if we don’t recognize it as such.
What do I mean? Well, one area of fear emerges during the holidays. For example, we might have family and friends coming to see us or we’re going to a friend’s house, or we are traveling to see family in order to spend time with them. And very often, what happens is that in the midst of all the activity and preparations, we get overwhelmed with stress and anxiety, right?
Well, many times, stress and anxiety is actually rooted in fear.
I was reminded of this recently when I was listening to a podcast episode entitled, “How To Build Courage” by Khairy Varre. (You can catch her wonderful podcast, The Mastery Matrix here.
Khairy spoke about where all of our fears come from. And it got me to thinking about the fact that so much of what we think and will say is negative in our lives is actually a blessing in disguise.
How so?
Well, it’s about a change in our perspective. It’s about putting on the “eyeglasses” of our Lord and looking at things through His eyes, so that what we think are negatives, or bad things, and realizing instead that “No, these are actually blessings.” These are actually the places of weakness that Saint Paul refers when he wrote in 2 Corinthians about how God works most powerfully through our weakness.
So, what are those fears? What are those weaknesses?
Well, a common one that people speak of nowadays is the fear of missing out.
We’re afraid to miss out. We’re afraid that someone else is enjoying or receiving something that we want, so we rush around trying to do everything and be everywhere. This fear lots of times comes from the fact that we’re living in a place of scarcity. We’re living in with a perspective that there’s not enough to go around and that we’re not going to be able to get what we need or that other people are going to get things that we need instead. This is a place of scarcity and that’s where that fear comes in.
So, how might you turn this fear into a blessing? Well, we turn it into a blessing by gaining a different perspective. We gain that perspective by spending time with God. We spend time with God and absorb the fact that our God cares for everything.
In fact, if He was to stop thinking about us right now, we would stop existing! But He is caring for us, even in the midst of our greatest challenges, heartaches and difficulties, and when we see life from this perspective, then we live in a place of abundance, and not scarcity, and this fear turns into a blessing.
Because our Lord is present. He’s right there beside us. But how often do we not invite Him into our journey? And so it’s about allowing Him to be able to remind us that we can trust Him, that He is going to give us exactly what we need, exactly when we need it.
That’s exactly how we transform that fear of missing out into a blessing. We invite our Lord in and say, “Lord, let me trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you.” We can turn the fear of missing out into a blessing by being able to encounter our Lord and grow and trust in him.
Another very common fear we all face, but sometimes we might not even know that it is fear, is procrastination.
I know ALL about this one right now as I am preparing to write another book. I am going and doing just about anything to try and avoid sitting down and writing this book.
Why? Because I am afraid. Afraid of what you may ask?
Well, often, at the root of procrastination is the fear to leave where we are right now as a person, or to leave our circumstances. We’re afraid of whatever the next thing is going to be because we don’t know exactly what that next thing is. So, it’s really about our uncertainty, or our not knowing enough, or our hesitancy to leave our comfort zone, that leads us to procrastinate.
In simplest terms, procrastination is that we’re afraid to move on.
So, how might we turn procrastination into a blessing?
Well, to start with, whenever procrastination is showing up in your life, recognize it for what it is—fear at work. Then, invite our Lord into that. Pray and say something like, “All right, Lord, I know that I’m afraid of something. Give me clarity; help me discern what it is that I’m afraid of.” And then spend time reflecting in the company of our Lord.
Are we afraid of having to change? Or maybe afraid of looking foolish because we don’t know enough? Or perhaps we are afraid that we can’t do this thing that we know we need to do? Or maybe it’s the fear that we’re not enough? Or that we can’t be enough? Or maybe our fear comes from ignorance or anger?
Whatever the fear is that is causing procrastination, again, we have the opportunity to turn it into a blessing by inviting our Lord into that fear as we pray, “Lord, give me clarity. Help me see as you see.” This is where we turn procrastination into a blessing because the more clarity that we allow to happen in our lives, then the more it increases our capacity for proper discernment–of moving through the cycle of awareness, understanding and taking action.
For the awareness that we are procrastinating then can potentially lead to a deeper understanding about why we might be procrastinating. And then , our Lord can help us gain clarity about what it is that we are afraid of, and then with the Lord’s help, we can take action.
For me, I can think of no better blessing than to grow in clarity about how it is, or what it is, that I might be of afraid of, and then invite our Lord to help heal me of that fear so I can live out His continuous direction to His disciples to “Be not afraid.”
So, what are other fears that we can seek to turn into blessings?
How about all those fears that are from our childhood? All those fears rooted in our childhood about what we can’t, or what we have to do. Or how about the fears associated with all those things that we don’t know? This is a HUGE one because whenever we don’t know about something, then it creates a fear of any change at all. And then we tend to shy away from anything that we don’t know about. So are we afraid of change?
Or perhaps another fear that might be showing up for us is impatience. Impatience is rooted in our fear of failure. We’re afraid to fail. We want to see success now, right? We want to experience success right now in whatever it is that we are desiring and doing. And when it doesn’t happen, we get impatient.
So, how can we turn that into a blessing? Again, we can come and we can say, “Lord, help me grow in patience. Help me grow in trust of your ways, of how it is that you desire for me to grow and to come to be who you created me to be, help me to not be so impatient.”
For our Lord is patient with us.
Or at least I know he’s patient with me! I don’t know how many times I haven’t been able to see clearly something that I’ve been afraid of, or something I’ve been insisting on doing it my way. it’s in all of those things that we don’t like, we didn’t choose, we can’t change, and we don’t understand where our Lord is patient with us and He shows us His care for us.
He tells us to trust in Him. To believe that He is going to provide all things for us. That we don’t have to worry about whether there is enough because He will make sure that there is because He is trying to work out everything for us. If we are but patient enough to allow Him to.
Or how about overwhelm? Feeling overwhelmed is about the fear of losing control. It’s about the fear of the uncertainty again.
So, how can we turn these things into blessings? Again, it’s about spending time in quiet with our Lord, inviting Him into that fear, and allowing Him to heal us of that fear in whatever manner He believes is best for us. It is about spending time with the One who loves us beyond measure and allowing Him to remind us of His care. To allow Him to remind us of His love, and to be reminded of how He has provided for us, even in the midst of our stubbornness, even in the midst of our trying to grasp and hold on to control of our lives.
Because He will come into our lives and work–if we but allow Him to do so.
This is how our deepest fears can turn into our greatest blessings.
But it all begins with one thing, doesn’t it?
It begins with spending time with our Lord.
To spend time each morning with Him who loves us so much that He came to be with us. It’s about cultivating that habit of daily prayer and meditation.
Now, I know the first thing that most people say is, “Oh, I don’t have time.” But the fact is is that you have all the time in the world. When we say we don’t have time, we are responding from a place of fearful scarcity. Or a from a place of fear about losing control.
The challenge is to come and spend that time, spend that little bit of time, and allow God to fill you with His eternal moment. To allow Him to fill you with His love, and with trust and hope–knowing that all things will be well because He works through our weakness.
And that’s the whole key about turning fears into blessings.
It’s about seeing each of our fears as an opportunity for God to come into our lives and work through our weakness, so to bring about the result that He desires for all of us–to live lives of purpose and peace and abundance. Of His desire for us to become those living, breathing, and wonder working saints that He created us to be.
Sanctity is not about perfection. It’s about wholeness.
So, as you’re spending time this Thanksgiving weekend, remember those anxieties, any of those fears, any of those things that you might be struggling with, and invite God into them so He can make them blessings. Give thanks for those fears and weaknesses because they’re opportunities for you to continue on this journey alongside our Lord–to come to a life of purpose and peace and abundance, a life full of God’s love and mercy.
Give thanks for all of those things. Give thanks for the One who loves us and give thanks for all the many things in your life–even those things that you do not like, you can’t change, you didn’t choose, and you don’t understand. For all of them are opportunities for us to truly grow, to become whole. To become more holy.
So this is my hope for all of you this Thanksgiving weekend, and I also hope that you will consider joining me beginning THIS Sunday for the 40 Day Celebration of the Greatest Gift We’ve Ever Been Given.
Why? Because each day, we are going to spend time seeking to turn our fears into blessings.
It’s real simple. You get a daily email. You spend the five minutes doing the short opening prayer, reading the short excerpt from my book along with a brief reflection, and then use the prayer prompt to have a short conversation with our Lord, and then follow the daily action step. That’s it.
Because when you do this, you allow our Lord to come into your heart and mind and soul, and work through your weaknesses. For when we create that small place of silence and solitude, God is able to help you change your perspective so that you can see that all of your fears truly are blessings in disguise.
One last note about the 40 Day Celebration is that by simply signing up you will be helping others (10% of all proceeds are donated to charity), AND each Monday night we’ll be gathering online to simply spend time together to celebrate by sharing some stories about our journeys, so that we can learn together about how we can turn our deepest fears into our greatest blessings and become the saints God created us to be. I hope to see you there!
Christina Semmens is a Roman Catholic author, speaker, and coach and host of the Say Yes to Holiness podcast and YouTube Channel. She currently lives in Fort Payne, Alabama where she strives to live out a life of authentic discipleship in the pursuit of holiness while empowering, teaching and accompanying others in striving to do the same.
