Empowerment

´WHAT YOU FEAR, YOU EMPOWER

High school bullies, armies, spoiled kids,  terrorists, punk rockers, moms, leaders (religious and political) etc have capitalized on this theory  for centuries.

I have friends terrified by danger (perceived or real) Such as stuff on fox news, satan, demons, crime, etc has turned them into blithering cowards. They can´t function.  When they try to, it´s  weird  When you fear a people group or anything else, you give it super powers in your life.  There´s voodoo here in Nicaragua, and some people are affected by it.   IF you fear it, your fear empowers it to hurt you, I have accidentally ate, drunk and stepped on cursed items, and once even sat on one.  The only thing that happened to me was that  I stunk afterwards cause that stuff is made out of nasty things.  People around me shuddered in fear, but I know that He that is in me is greater than he (little h) that is in the world.

What does scare me is thrown rocks. Nicaraguans are natural short stops.  They can throw a baseball at lightning speed….. Even their national hero, Andres Castro, is known for his fast ball. When William Walker and the american mercenary filibuster tried to enslave the Nicaraguans in 1856, Andres weapon jammed and he killed a gringo by throwing a rock.  I have been in rock fights down here, and it´s scary.  When kids pick up rocks at the pre k, or the feeding center, we get scared because someone always gets hurt.  When I first started ministering  in Nicaragua, I had a ´church with out walls´.  Right in front of the TELCOR central, where we get our mail.  A boy came one day when I had about 100 kids around me and boy was he  furious about something.  He had a baseball sized rock in his hand. He had on blue jeans, no shirt, about 10 year old…. I am a grown man, and I was terrified of this skinny little runt…. he is going to throw the rock.  I was paralyzed with fear, he was empowered…. He threw the rock with all his might at my groin from about 10 feet away.  Little 7 year old Keylin intentionally jumped in front of the line of fire, and took it in the hip.  I saw her the other day, she´s around thirty now, and still walks with a limp.  Right across the street from where the incident took place, is a statue of a boy, with jeans and no shirt throwing a rock. (It´s in honor of Andres Perez, but I see it as a tribute to Keylin.  A 7 year old girl did not empower the bully that I EMPOWERED.

Ok,  so if you want to empower something you have to fear it?  Yes and no.  The fear of the Lord is a good thing, and it empowers Him to operate in your life.  He becomes real to you.   But how do you empower a child?  By fearing him or her?  That´s not empowering them, that´s just turning them into spoiled brats.  You control your fear, not of the child, but of the child´s future.  I FEAR THE FUTURE OF THE KIDS I WORK WITH.  So I use that fear to work harder to make sure that they have a chance to not end up a victim.  The key to handling fear is to make it a positive fear.  Fear of parents (respect), fear of God (reverence) fear of boss (common sense).  That´s good fear.  There´s bad fear, that controls and kills.   I used to be afraid of not having health insurance.  I took the most absurd,  worst paying jobs in the world just for medical ´benefits.  Every time that we went to the hospital however, it was a battle to get them to pay. Now we are happily insurance free for the past 7 years. I was afraid of nothing.  Medical and dental here is 1/20th of what it is in the states.. and it´s fine.  Fear is good, as long as you can use it to empower the right things, like giving kids a future and a hope.

How do you empower a child to have a better life?  You teach them to look their fear  straight in the eyes and destroy it.  You empower them to choose what to fear. Through prayer to our Heavenly Father and obedience to righteous authorities in their lives, they can make that decision.   In doing that, you are teaching them to empower the right things.  Teach them to not feat the knuckleheads in the gangs, but to fear God.  Teach them to not fear the pedophile, but turn him or her over to the authorities.  Fear the consequences of making bad choices more than fearing the loss of ´friends´.

imho

Dean