It’s crazy to think that we are now in the last week of October! Before we know it, the year will be over and a new one will begin, but, before all that, we still have one last movie to get to in this series! All month long I have been talking about how to face fear. Week one we looked at the importance of having people in your corner, then week two we looked at how to face fear that you created, and last week we looked at how to face fear that is out of our control. In each of those weeks, facing fear comes down to our relationship with our creator. Different circumstances, but the same loving God in all things. Today, I want to talk about how being in an active relationship with Christ, allows us to tap into great power. Power that can be used to face any fear, no matter how dark it may seem.
Continue readingHalloween
Facing Fear Out of Your Control
It’s probably safe to say that the past year and some change were totally unexpected. So much happened at a speed where it was incredibly difficult to keep up. From worldwide struggles and personal struggles, last year had a lot of fear that was out of our control. In these moments it can be easy to just have a mindset of giving up because everything feels out of control. For many, giving up was the easiest option, people’s faith was challenged as well as the way we look at the actions of others made hope scarce. In these moments it can be easy to want to give up, we see the fear that is out of our control and we choose to no longer have hope. In these moments, we must face those fears out of our control, because we have a God who has overcome all fear.
Continue readingFacing Fear, You Created
Welcome back to another lesson from a b-movie! Last week I talked about a recent movie, but today we are looking back to the 80’s with a pretty obscure choice. I love doing this series not only because talking about how to face fear is important, but I also get to share about weird movies not many people know about. When we talk about fear, it’s often about the fears of things done to us or things we worry about happening in the future, but sometimes, they come from our own actions. This is something that I have been thinking about recently, there are moments in my past where I’ve made a bad decision or said something I wish I didn’t, and those begin to hold me back.
Continue readingLove God, Love People
Spooky season is almost finished, which means this is our finale to the b-movie series here on the blog. Today, since I like to keep you on your toes, we will not be looking at a movie, but a TV show, and a specific episode. The Twilight Zone, created by Rod Serling (who also narrates each episode), sets a spooky tone in every episode with wild scenarios, all based in real issues we deal with. The episode we will be looking at today is titled, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” the setting takes place in a suburban neighborhood and suddenly a flash in the sky appears and everything stops working. The neighbors gather in the street confused about the power outage and strange flash, and a little boy suggests it could be aliens infiltrating the neighborhood. Panic starts, then fingers are pointed at one another power comes on in certain houses, driving the people to become more and more untrusting of one another. The anger leads to a death, then the street erupts into chaos.
The final moment of the episode shows two aliens watching these events, and they simply say that all they need to do to conquer earth, is create confusion and the humans will destroy themselves.
Continue readingFully Known
This season has been absolutely wild. From a pandemic, injustices, natural disaster, as well as the personal struggles we all face can be taxing on our mental health. It can be easy in the midst of our struggles to feel alone. There was a very distinct feeling of isolation a few months back, and even still limited interaction causes some fear. One of the hardest battles, is dealing with mental health alone. I’ve written in the past about my own struggle with anxiety, and the worst part was feeling alone. You can know that others struggle, yet at the same time, feel like no one can possibly understand your pain. What I found was, that I needed to be vulnerable with others, and the truth I found, was that I am fully known and loved.
Continue readingFear: King of the Monsters
It’s finally my favorite time of year! The start of the fall season always brings me joy. The crisp air and the changing colors, well, not really here in Florida, but the season always makes me so happy. A great part of this season, are all the spooky b-movies that I devour. Goofy, yes. Cheesy, absolutely! I always love watching b-movies, and October seems to be the perfect fit for them. I also love movies because they can teach us a lot about our own lives. So, today kicks off my b-movie series here on the blog, today we’ll be looking at the king of all monsters.
Continue readingNo Longer a Slave to Fear
Well, it’s finally here. In just a couple of days it will be Halloween, the candy will have been eaten and the spooks will settle down (unless you’re a spooky boy like me and it’ll last all year). Before that, we have one last post about fear and spooky b-movies. I want to finish off talking about fear with this one simple idea, when we live in fear, we live as slaves. We fear commitment because of hurtful relationships in the past. We live in fear because of the emotions going on in our heads. We live in fear of the unknown and not having the life plan we desire. We live in fear that we will fade away and that no one will remember us. These fears enslave us, but when we choose to fight fear with love, we become free.
Focus Your Heart
I think it’s important to talk about mental health. For a long time, mental health had a stigma around it, meaning that whenever it was brought up is was hushed or just treated like something you needed to just “get over.” What has happened now though, is that these stigmas are starting to break, which is a good thing. We need to be okay to talk about our struggles and in turn, get help for them. That’s what we’ll be looking at today, ways to focus your heart. Too often we forget to take care of ourselves, and I mean that from a mental perspective. You might be dealing with some struggles, old heartache, or maybe you don’t even know where these “low” feelings are coming from. It’s easy to try and brush it aside or pretend like it’s not real, but it is real. Our mental wellbeing is important, thought we don’t address it in our lives. This is coming from someone who has heavy anxiety. I’ve written about my battle before in a post I called, “My Battle with Anxiety.” That will give you some context and help you if you are dealing with this same battle, but today I want to talk about something incredibly important, addressing the problem in order to be free.
Treat Others Out of Love, Never Fear
One of the scariest situations to be in, is a new place where you know no one. Growing up, I didn’t move a lot, but I was put in situations where I had to meet new people all the time. I grew up in a church where there were a lot of kids, went to a bunch of homeschool groups then a real school, there were continual moments growing up where I found myself faced with people I had no clue about. That can be very intimidating. What if they don’t like me? What if they make fun of me? What if no one wants to be my friend? These questions are based in a real fear that we experience, but often, we let that fear control us. I had to learn early on that I sometimes had to do the scary thing first and get scared later, that meant putting myself out there a lot and not knowing what would stick.
Love Reaction
I am now twenty-five years old. That’s kinda weird to think about. I really love birthdays, it gives me a chance to reflect and dream about what can happen during this next phase of my life. Last year was really awesome, I talked about that in my post a couple weeks back; the biggest part was starting a new adventure with my dearest Danielle! As much as it was awesome, there were some challenges outside of that moment. I still deal with some of the rejection I faced, the knowledge that people who wronged me will never apologize gets me angry. I’ve struggled with anger for a long time, and if you’ve met me hopefully you wouldn’t think that. I learned a long time ago that anger feels very empty, it’s often just a reaction with no thought of the consequences that could come. I believe anger comes from fear. Our expectations and emotions were switched and we are filled with fear deep down as a result, then we get angry.
Anger is empty, love is fulfilling.
Joshua Writes 