How sociable are you? Do you count the close friends you have on one hand, two hands, or by the hundreds on your social media pages? Are you easy to talk to and easily converse in public with strangers, or do you shy away, look at your phone, and anxiously avoid conversation? Do others label you or do you label yourself as "Socially Awkward?" Does the thought of going out into public scare the daylights out of you?
I'm thinking there might not be anything "wrong" with you, but maybe everything right. I was looking back over some of my prior posts and found this one from December 2017, called, "Dazed and Confused." I was lamenting about how society has become more dangerous and criminals have no consequences or accountability for their actions. Here we are in 2020 and nothing has gotten better, but in fact danger lurks everywhere. I don't think we are raising socially awkward children, I think we are raising children who fear the reality that we live in a dangerous world.
I mean think about it from their perspective about these real life scenarios:
One day you are walking to school and some guy jumps out of a van and grabs you and is pulling you toward the van where you know in your heart you will be raped, murdered and your body dumped somewhere in Barstow.
Or, you're listening to your teacher lecture on some mundane subject when one of your classmates walks in with a gun and shoots your teacher and several of your best friends.
Or, you walk through the door after school to hear your parents fighting, lamps crashing, and you walk in just in time to see your father punch your mother in the face and knock her to the ground.
Oh, then you get to watch it all happen over and over again on television and infuse into your brain more sex, lies, and violence. Is it any wonder out children are and have grown up learning to isolate, filled with anxiety, and depressed that things will never change or get better? Then they graduate, go to college (where there is more death, lies, and murder) and somehow they miraculously are supposed to "enjoy" social gatherings, hang-outs, and relax around complete strangers. I work with several 30 year olds who have fear in social gatherings. I want to tell them that their senses are accurate, that we do live in a dangerous world, but they have to learn to control the fear or the fear will control them.
Life is scary. Control what you can and live in faith the things you can't control. Have faith that what you have considered, planned against, and made yourself aware of, has been addressed to the best of your ability. I always say, "Plan for the worst, and hope for the best." Faith is addressing what you see, and what you can't see you leave to God. If you are more comfortable sitting near the door, do it. If you don't like your back to the door, sit where you are comfortable. Look around the room and be comfortable doing it. Don't feel there is something wrong with you. Cautious people are an asset as they are the ones prepared when something does go wrong. But don't obsess over it. Do it once, then take a deep breath and relax knowing you did everything within your ability. When you leave, alive and well, you can say, "I lived another day and can tell of it."
"Faith shows the reality of what we hope for;
it is the evidence of things we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1
Day 29: Faith