Praying about the "big issues"—people who can stand up to fear

Most people try to teach their kids not to be afraid—of the dark, of other kids, of not being able to overcome challenges. Yet one parent admitted, "I'm trying to reassure my kids not to be afraid of things that I'm actually afraid of myself." Someone else was seeking professional help to deal with fears he thought must be irrational. But he was told, "These days, you'd be crazy not to be afraid!"

Experts are saying that a certain amount of fear (who knows how much?) may be normal—something to learn to co-exist with. And the ads say that if we want to be free from worrying for a few hours, we can take a pill to calm our nerves and go to sleep. Some people have even been willing to try a technique such as hypnosis to retrain the psyche.

But when we stop to think about it, fear itself is a kind of hypnotism. Fearful thoughts make someone feel mesmerized, controlled, even paralyzed at times. Wouldn't the best answer, then, be a way to break out of this hypnotic state?

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