Because fear, in this case phobia, was never meant to be part of our existence and who we were created to be. As someone who believes in creation, and God who created us in His image, it is in our fallen state and nature that we are imbued with this intrinsic fear, because His Absence is the very presence of Fear.

Human Psychology would state that the root of our fears is primal that it’s a coping mechanism of fight or flight, all to sustain and survive. There is much researched on Physical fears and moderate research on emotional fears, and very sparse on Intellectual or Metaphysical fears.

Fear in essence is anything that is threatening, and our primal need to evade, escape or fight it. Often we end up escaping and evading, as fighting takes commitment, and often after the first defeat many give up.

Remember as a child, the many fears we encountered, we overcame some, we learned to manage others, and then there are those that became foundational to our adult and current behaviour, to this day.

We all, to a certain degree, admit, manage, negate or hide the fears in our lives. We wish/prefer to get rid of them, but I have a hunch we are “fearful” of getting rid of them, because then what else can we blame; it’s the ground that triggers our paralysis, escapes and hiding. It is a coping mechanism that is triggered when we are faced with fear.

All around the world, very often, it’s fears that give us much of our “raison d’être”1 of who we are, what we are, the way we are. By default, every child dreams, then slowly as we grow up, fears begin to creep in, and step by step shatter those dreams, and there are two camps: those who let it dictate their future, or the ones who negate it and fight, believe and move forward.

“We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, we are driven by our own anxieties… we live in a state of constant fear.”

Thomas Merton

In the presence of Tyranny, some escape hoping for a better life, in the presence of poverty, some endanger their lives, knowing staying is as dangerous. They also allow us to become human and feel struggle.

Is it possible to become fearless in life or to get rid of your fears? If the fears are gone, does that make us numb because we have nothing else to be scared of? I’ve always wondered how much fear dictates our days, our years, our relationships, and how much we actually get carried away by them.

Now of course if we think about where we are right now as humanity, with the constant fear of the future, the volatility of the present, and the uncertainties of both, we cannot but subscribe to fear. Deep down, humanity has come to terms with the constant presence of fear as the norm, and that in my humble opinion, is a sad thing. We are either hyping the reality of what is, or we are downsizing it, when we should be grounded in Reality, but with the spark of hope for tomorrow.

Science, culture, literature, Media and even social media want to keep us concerned, almost fearful to live, and disconnect, as if we should remain connected to soothe our fears.

But what if there’s another way?

What if fearlessness isn’t about getting rid of fear at all, but about standing on something stronger? I keep coming back to those faces on Fear night. The fear didn’t disappear after they stepped forward. But something else was there too, something that held them even when their hands shook. That small group cheering them on, that love, however modest, was enough to carry them through.

If His Absence is the presence of Fear, then His Presence—Love itself—is what grounds us. Scripture says that perfect love casts out fear. Not that love makes fear vanish, but that love is so much stronger, so much more foundational, that fear loses its grip. God is love2, and if we are created in His image, then love isn’t just something we feel; it’s the bedrock we were meant to build on.

We’ve been operating from the wrong baseline. We treat fear as the default setting, the ground state of human existence, and then scramble to manage it, cope with it, hide from it. But what if love is the original condition? What if fear is the disruption, the thing that only seems permanent because we’ve forgotten what we’re standing on?

When we root ourselves in God—who is Love—we’re not building elaborate defenses or performing confidence we don’t feel. We’re returning to the foundation we were always meant to have. And from that foundation, fear is still there, yes, the threats are real, but it doesn’t dictate. It doesn’t paralyze. It doesn’t get the final word.

The world will keep trafficking in fear. It’s everywhere, designed to keep us anxious, uncertain, connected to the very thing that unnerves us. But we don’t have to live from that place. We can choose a different foundation. Not fearless because nothing threatens us, but fearless because we are held by Love itself. Because God, who is Love, has not left us to white-knuckle our way through existence.

He is the foundation, and on that foundation, we can walk through the fear without being owned by it. This is the hope: that Love is stronger. That the presence of Love is always, always greater than the presence of fear. That we were made to live from that place, grounded in the Reality of who God is and who we are in Him.

And that changes everything.

PS. Go for a walk, and or find a quiet spot, take a few deep breaths, and know you are eternally loved.