DIVERGENT > “FEAR!”

HOW MANY FEARS DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE?

PERHAPS ANYTHING CAUSING DEATH OR GREAT PAIN? (How many things would that be? A lot!)

As I continue steadily reading the book of “Divergent”, I am intrigued with the idea of knowing how many fears we have. One of the main characters whose real name is Tobias, normally is known by his nickname, “Four”. You find out the reason for this is that he has only four fears! The lowest number they have ever had!

Now since the faction of Dauntless highly values courage, then you can imagine how good it is to be the person with the lowest number of fears. Eventually you find out that Tris has a very low number also, and that being seven. A total number of seven fears.

There are many examples of men and women in extreme situations who have somehow risen above their fears to do very heroic things. Of course we think of our military men and women on battlefields, also Police Officers and Firemen. I’m sure doctors and nurses face fears of many kinds when trying to save a life. Life offers plenty of fears. Perhaps because we are really all so very fragile!

BUT WE HAVE TWO KINDS OF FEAR.

1.) Fears that are there for our own good to keep us safe.

2.) Fears that hinder us and hold us back from what we need to do.

The fear of speaking in front of groups of people can be a very hindering phobia. Many well-paying careers require the ability to speak in front of small to large groups. Fear causes us to freeze! Someone hands us a microphone and all of a sudden all we can do is stutter and stumble over our thoughts. Take the microphone away and suddenly we can think again. The bad part is that while you are frozen in fear everyone is watching! Overcoming fear of this sort is no small thing.

However, there is fear that is good for us. The kind of fear that causes us to respect traffic laws, be careful with a gun or chainsaw, and don’t play with fire!

HEALTHY FEARS ARE A PRODUCT OF WISDOM!

The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now why might that be? I have found most people don’t realize just how “HOLY” God is. We really don’t even understand the power of this thing called, “holy”. If not for the blood and grace of Christ, God’s holiness would wipe us out like sterilization kills germs! Like fire purifies gold! We would be the dross the fire burns up! Consider this encounter Moses had with God in Exodus 33:3-4 >

“Go up to this land that flows with milk and honey. But I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn and rebellious people. If I did, I would surely destroy you along the way.” When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewelry and fine clothes.”

Fear is a very interesting subject and the book Divergent delves into it. There are times when it is for our own good to be afraid. In today’s world where God is nothing but love, people have lost their sense of sin and fear. The more we sin the more we should fear, BECAUSE SIN IS THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE, AND GOD IS LOVE!

Now if you think about that you just might get a clue as to what it really means when scripture says “God is love”. Real love is all about not causing your neighbor to stumble. So, if you have a lifestyle of doing your own thing no matter how it affects others? God is love alright, and you just might be his enemy. That is a fearful situation. Hope you have enough FEAR to respect that, and enough WISDOM to do something about it, LIKE OBEY GOD! (For your own good, and the good of everyone around you, because that is love. The Bible is actually asking us to live in God in love. Is that really such a bad thing?)

Think about it.

Now in way of a preview: It is beginning to become plain that a war is brewing. The Erudite, who are seekers of knowledge, want to overthrow the faction of Abnigation. From the very beginning I found it interesting that this one faction could be compared to religious people. I doubt our author has any kind of intentional religious message in these books, but I do expect to get some interesting analogies. Abnigation is the “selfless” group who are supposed to always prefer others before themselves. As such, they were put in charge of governing, due to their selfless nature they could be trusted.

However, some people think they are a bit too frugal and tight with their way of doing things. It sounds like the smart people think they can do a better job than the selfless people. I see a lot of smart people in politics that I wish were more selfless. They all seem to have an agenda, and they all seem to get very rich very fast. Once this overthrow breaks out, things should get very exciting and I’m sure there will be plenty of testing of the fear verses bravery ratio.