UNDERSTANDING AND COUNTERING FEAR

Planning the Session

Session Goals

As a result of conversations and activities connected with this session, group members should begin to

• examine the role fear plays in the lives of contemporary people;

• explore biblical perspectives on fear and how God's people have been liberated from its power;

• experience faith as the critical background for understanding and controlling fear; and

• understand the goals for the study more clearly.

Scriptural Foundation

Do not fear, for I am with you,
do not be afraid, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

(Isaiah 41:10 NRSV)

Special Preparation

• Prepare the room with the seating arranged in a circle so everyone will be able to see each other.

• Create a small worship space in the center of the circle with visual reminders of God's presence. This could include a cross, a candle, or a Bible.

• Have name tags available as well as pens and markers.

• Have available index cards, paper, and pens or pencils.

• On a large sheet of paper that can be posted in the room, print the following question for the opening activity:

* Where do you hold your fear?

• On another large sheet of paper (or several), print the following statements:

* "False fears and unhealthy worry ... keep us from living well."

* "So many of us live our entire lives paralyzed by fear, just a mile from the Promised Land."

• On another sheet of paper, print the verse above (Isaiah 41:10), broken into four lines as shown.

• Have another blank sheet of paper posted on the wall for the acronym activity. (Once completed, you can retain this paper for use in future weeks.)

Getting Started

Opening Activity

As participants arrive, greet them and invite them into the circle of chairs. Especially if it is a newly formed group, have each person write his or her name on a name tag and put it on. Begin the session with brief introductions.

Invite group members to consider the question posted on the wall: Where do you hold your fear? Note for the group that fear and stress have physical manifestations that we can feel when we are aware. Ask volunteers to share how they would answer the question.

As preparation for prayer, invite participants to get into a sitting pose that they can maintain comfortably for several minutes. Use the following suggestions to guide participants through a visualization:

• Place both feet on the floor and sit upright with your hands resting loosely on your thighs.

• Close your eyes and sense where there is tension in your body. It may be in your shoulders, neck, chest, or elsewhere.

• Visualize that tension as a brightly colored web of energy.

• Try to relax the part of your body that is holding the tension. As you do, imagine the colored energy moving to the palms of your hands.

• Make a fist with your hands and hold the energy tightly for a few seconds.

• Now open your hands, palms upward, and release that energy to God as we pray.

Opening Prayer

Pray together, using the following prayer, or one of your own choosing:

God who calms the troubled waters, we bless you for your presence in the midst of our fears and trials. We release to you the things we hold too tightly, and we trust your words of peace. Be among us in this session, and may our souls and bodies be secure in you. Amen.

Learning Together

Video Study and Discussion

In video Session 1, Adam Hamilton introduces us to Carlos, Ginger, and Marie, three people who face fears just as we all do. Afterward, he talks with a neuroscientist, Dr. David Zald of Vanderbilt University and asks how our brains play a role in how we experience fear. Dr. Zald is Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Neuoscience Program for Undergraduates. Discuss:

• What are the fears expressed by the three people in the beginning of the video? How have these fears been a part of your own life?

• How does the faith of the people interviewed help them confront fear?

• Why does Dr. Zald say that fear "clearly is a gift"?

• What are some of the ways that Dr. Zald suggests for treating anxiety and worry?

Book and Bible Study and Discussion

Examine the Role of Fear in Our Lives

Ask a volunteer to read aloud the first two paragraphs of Chapter 1 in the book. Point out that Adam Hamilton lifts up the prevalence of worry, anxiety, and fear in our lives. Later in Chapter 1, he notes that many of the people who responded to his church's survey reported moderate or significant levels of fear. Discuss:

• What are the aspects of contemporary life that make people fearful?

• In Chapter 2, Hamilton says that fear may play a role in keeping us safe. Talk about a time when fear kept you safe.

• Hamilton also identifies false fears and unhealthy worry as things that can keep us from living well. When have you experienced your fear as something that kept you from living well?

• In talking about the promise of this book in Chapter 1, Hamilton expresses confidence that we can learn to address our fears, control them, and learn from them. What tools do you already have that help you deal with your fear? What are your hopes for this study?

Study a Biblical Perspective on Fear

Read aloud Numbers 13:32-33, and encourage the group to glance back over the first few paragraphs of the chapter. Discuss:

• What were the fears that kept the people from entering the Promised Land?

• Why do you think the people listened to the ten pessimistic spies rather than to the two spies who assured them that God was with them?

• Hamilton says, a little later in Chapter 3, that our visions of a Promised Land, or of a future we would like to see, can be clouded by our assumptions about the risks and dangers involved so that we can become paralyzed by the obstacles. When have you seen a group become paralyzed by risks and dangers? When have you been paralyzed by risks and dangers?

Now have the group visualize the situation of the Israelites as they sat one mile from the Promised Land.

• What hopes and dreams had the Israelites had for the land?

• What would their lives be like as nomadic people living in the wilderness?

As a group, choose a contemporary situation that causes a great deal of fear. Discuss together what "preferred future" lies beyond our fears.

• What would it mean to "stare down the giants" of our fears in this situation?

• What would our lives be like if we do not stare them down?

Define...