“We may well be perplexed at human fear;…but why should we stand aghast at nothingness?” (Science and Health, page 563)

Franklin Roosevelt said it well: “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He went on to call such fear “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Roosevelt knew, just as the author of Science and Health did many years earlier, that fear could be mesmerizing, perplexing, paralyzing, but also unjustified and without power against the awakened, advancing thought and action. Why stand aghast at limits and lies? Why give power and attention to that which is nothing against the real power of God—Life, Truth, Love?

We often tend to own our fears, to justify them, to hold to them and make them seem either reasonable or so attached to us that we are stuck with them. But fear is not real and it is not yours. The fear is as much a lie about your freedom as is the thing of which you may feel you are afraid. We were not given fear, but Love and the sound mind to know that.

Don’t let your fear of fear, your preoccupation with it, cause you to retreat from Life, from opportunity, from freedom. Franklin Roosevelt knew that the answer to a nation in trouble required action, unity, energy, and expectation. An attachment to fear would impede that purpose, be the death to hope and to a better life. The people responded to his message and rose to the task, just as we must do, daily. Fear is a daily death, but it is not yours, not powerful, not perplexing. It is nameless nothingness!

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.