Fear-based relationships are the hallmark of corporate life. “So and so is flying in. Clean up your area, dress extra nice, be on your toes, be careful.”
Walk the corridors of a corporate complex, be self-assured, chin up, eye contact, confidently winsome, brisk and purposeful but calm and relaxed, and impeccably but effortlessly arranged, and men will turn in their shoulders and hug the wall to give you room, duck their heads, and make eager but cautious greetings. There are all kinds of evidences of fear dominating workplaces. Fear is everywhere – it’s a cultural commodity – perhaps the cultural commodity.
But it has no place in the Church or among the Orthodox. The idea of being cautious lest you annoy some clergyman, careful lest someone learn your true thoughts or ideas and turn on you, or hinting that you might “tell” (“Who’s your bishop? I might need to have a talk with him”) – as though our clergymen were some sort of easily manipulated HR Directors – these are beneath Christians and beneath contempt.
Afraid to ask questions, afraid to be say what you mean, afraid of what someone is thinking of you? That’s the world – not the kingdom, nor the life of heaven. It is not the way of angels.
There are among us timid ones, those who have not yet acquired as much of their liberty in this area as they have coming. We all have our weaknesses, do we not? But these depend on the rest of us to repudiate fear-based relationships, refuse to let fear govern our conduct or our society. They depend on us to make a smooth path through the thorns by standing strongly, holding the line, and refusing to give in to the temptation offered by the Evil One, the whispered gospel of anxiety, the psychosis of religious phobias, and the witchcraft of angry dominance that demands terror as homage.
Fear is the hallmark of power-based leadership. But true power neither requires fear, not experiences it.
If you must be afraid, it’s better to fear God than men. But where fear reigns, love is cast out. It’s an exorcism of Faith, and the triumph of the religion of the world. It’s the religion of corporations and the contagion of a culture of antagonism. Be healed, be unafraid, be saved. Ours is freedom – let no one rob you of your liberty.