Why Freedom from Fear and Want?

​Dear Why Team member,
I hope this week’s message finds you flying high, and if not, hopefully, the following insight will help you to do so. 

​Why Freedom from Fear and Want?

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In the 1930s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a State of the Union speech, implied that it was the government’s responsibility to free us from fear and want; some took it literally, and one could say we have grown in our dependency ever since.
 
Why do I bring this up?
 
It is only natural, that all of us, after spending the beginning of our lives supported emotionally and financially by our parents, if so fortunate, we would become accustomed to, and dependent on, the support. But the role of the parents is to eventually push their baby birds from the nest to discover what they can do: fly.
Fly in search of their own food, build their own nests and raise their own families. But that push from the nest is scary for everyone involved and it’s only natural to avoid it; it might even be seen as unloving to do it, but to do otherwise is far worse. 
 
Considering our origins and the natural preference to be cared for that many hold today, how best can we become free of fear and want?
I submit that no parents and certainly no bureaucratic entity can free us from fear and want. If we build dependency on institutions, government and/or parents, we can’t help but eventually feel a sense of helplessness. Only that which we produce from within ourselves through our own hard work, industry and perseverance can develop a sense of accomplishment and hopefulness. Consider how we are born with the will of independence and the need to belong to a community. Does not the young child desiring to learn say, “I do it, I do it”? Not letting him or her “do it”, on their own, or at least try to do it on their own, can do more harm than good. It is said that the highway to Hell is built with good intentions; without the push from the nest, the bird may never discover its ability to fly.
 
So how best may we achieve freedom from fear and want on our own?
 
Consider that the only real solution to “want” is “gratitude” and the only real solution to “fear” is “faith”; and both of these attitudes are developed from the inside out. We must learn to fly with our own wings if we are ever to soar in life.
 
To further develop our abilities to respond to life, let’s consider leveraging gratitude all the more to address our human tendency toward “want”. This does not mean we don’t set goals and commitments, that we don’t work hard to achieve them, but it is recognizing that an attitude of abundance creates more abundance than an attitude of scarcity.
 
How about fear?
Not the fear we experience if we see a snake in our path, but rather the fear we can have for the unknown future, better defined as worry.
The primary solution to worry?
Once again, it’s from the inside out: Faith! 
Two weeks ago I encouraged you to consider how we develop our abilities to “rise to the occasion”. To develop confidence and faith in the future, and all that it can bring to grow and develop us even further; it’s really the secret sauce to move beyond fear, anxiety, and worry.
 
Freedom from fear and want is a worthy aspiration, but no one can fly for us, we must take a step, leap, skip and sometimes run if we are to learn to fly and be free. And in doing so, we become a greater source of encouragement.
 
This week, consider exercising all the more your two wings, one of gratitude and the other of faith, and see if you don’t fly even higher - for yourself and for others.
 
Make it a great week!

Steve Luckenbach