Fighting the Season of Fear
It is a season of fear. Legitimate concerns about the housing market, unemployment, the credit crunch and the national debt crisis have spawned some very unrealistic fears about what lies ahead. And with those fears come some downright goofy suggestions of what we all should be doing about it, like hoarding food, stockpiling gold bars and distrusting our own government.
Christians are not supposed to be paranoid, but irrational fear is being spoon-fed to us from all different directions and from all the cable news channels. In 2 Timothy 1:7 we read, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." But that promise of a sound mind is quickly forgotten when the fear-mongering begins.
A good friend of mine recently started a home business selling food-storage products. But one of her first customers wanted to pay in gold coins because he feared the government could track his payment through the serial numbers on cash, and would therefore know he was storing up food. This guy actually thinks that in the event of a national crisis, some government goon would come knock on his door and collect his food stores for redistribution.
Another friend and her husband recently bought a home that has an entire wall of closets built into their basement. The previous owners had a year's worth of food stored up for the entire family.
While it's perfectly rational to have an emergency supply of food and water and wise to have a beefy savings account, where does preparation end and paranoia begin? I believe the key is to turn off the television and open your Bible, and to walk in wisdom while shunning fear.
Here are some healthy habits for paranoia-free preparation for more lean times ahead:
1. Get out of debt and save money. Getting out of debt is always a good investment. It's time to pay off the credit cards and the auto loan and to stop using credit to pay for purchases. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. And now is also a great time to rethink needs and wants. You can't build up a healthy savings account if you spend everything you earn. And a healthy savings stash is critical. Set an initial savings goal of one month's expenses and work your way up to at least six months.
2. Have a sensible stockpile. I used to cut coupons, but who has the time? I found a better way to cut our grocery spending by about 60 percent a month doing once-a-month grocery shopping and menu planning. I plan all of our meals for the month in advance and do one major shopping trip. I may have to send my husband out for milk and produce a few times before the month runs out, but I've stopped the weekly random store trips that always cost at least $50 or so. (You can read more about this here.) In addition to saving us a lot of money, it's also very convenient to know exactly what's for dinner for four weeks or so at a time. And if there was some sort of natural disaster that kept us from the store for days and days, we would be just fine.
3. Understand your fears and counterfeit convictions. If you're latching on to the fear mongers, there's a reason why. Ask yourself what you're really afraid of and what's really a conceivable threat. In my book Your Money God's Way, I explore seven false beliefs that cause Christians to do foolish things with their money. These false beliefs -- or counterfeit convictions, I call them, because they can look a lot like healthy convictions -- can also trick us into a false sense of fear or make us prone to panic. Exploring the roots of your fears and false beliefs can help you face them and overcome them once and for all.
4. Practice contentment and gratitude. Fear and gratitude cannot coexist. If you sit down and start making a list of all the trials that God has seen you through, the things you fear seem smaller and smaller. Matthew 6:34 says, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things."
When I'm worried about the future, I think of some difficult situations in my past and recall how God worked His miracles through them. Remembering His faithfulness fills me with so much gratitude, peace and confidence in His willingness to see me through tomorrow, that the fear can only fade.
