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Act Your Way Through Fear Stop Procrastinating - 2 Timothy 1:6-8 · If Bibles Could Talk

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  Speaker 1: How much of your potential is waiting on the other
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  Speaker 1: side of the fear you just refused to confront?
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  Speaker 2: That is the million-dollar question.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: It really is. Welcome to today's deep dive. We're looking
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  Speaker 1: at some really fascinating notes from Unlocking Potential.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a great topic to dig into.
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  Speaker 1: Today is all about that frustrating gap between knowing exactly
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  Speaker 1: what your calling is and, you know, actually doing it.
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  Speaker 2: Right, that feeling of total paralysis. Exactly.
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of like standing on the edge of a
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  Speaker 1: high diving board. You walked up the ladder. You know
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  Speaker 1: the mechanics of the jump.
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  Speaker 2: But you look down.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you look down and your feet just freeze.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and what keeps you glued to that board isn't
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  Speaker 2: a lack of knowledge, right? It's a miscalculation of risk.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, your brain is basically prioritizing immediate safety over long-term growth.
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  Speaker 2: So you end up in this total paralysis between knowing
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  Speaker 2: and acting.
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  Speaker 1: So how do we actually bypass that?
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  Speaker 2: Because.
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  Speaker 1: The notes point to this really amazing ancient letter to
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  Speaker 1: answer this.
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  Speaker 2: The letter to Timothy, right?
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  Speaker 1: Right. Paul advising Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1. He
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  Speaker 1: doesn't tell him to wait until he feels brave. He
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  Speaker 1: tells him to fan into flame the gift of God.
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  Speaker 2: Which is such a powerful image when you think about it.
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  Speaker 1: It really is. I mean, think of a campfire. An
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  Speaker 1: ember won't start a roaring fire on its own.
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  Speaker 2: No, you have to actually blow on it.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly. You have to get down and blow oxygen into it.
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  Speaker 1: So what does this mean in practice? Is Paul arguing
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  Speaker 1: that confidence actually requires physical action first?
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  Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is how accurately this text mirrors modern
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  Speaker 2: behavioral psychology. Like, we operate on this flawed assumption that
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  Speaker 2: we need to feel confident before we act.
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  Speaker 1: Like we're just waiting for the fear to go away.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. We sit on the diving board waiting for the
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  Speaker 2: fear to dissipate. But... The brain just doesn't work that way.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't.
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  Speaker 2: No. The amygdala, the fear center, it only learns that
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  Speaker 2: a threat isn't real when you take a step into
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  Speaker 2: it and actually survive.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. So you have to do the thing first.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So the physical action itself, that fanning we were
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  Speaker 2: talking about, it forces the brain to adapt. Action is
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  Speaker 2: what actually generates the psychological heat.
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  Speaker 1: So action precedes emotion. I mean, I follow the logic there,
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  Speaker 1: but let me push back a bit based on the
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  Speaker 1: other texts. Sure, go for it. Proverbs chapter 6 warns
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  Speaker 1: heavily against sluggishness. If I read that, it sounds like
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  Speaker 1: it's diagnosing the problem as just plain old laziness.
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  Speaker 2: Right, the sluggard.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Not fear, not a misfiring amygdala, just being lazy.
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  Speaker 1: How do you reconcile a fear response with a text
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  Speaker 1: basically calling us slackers?
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  Speaker 2: Well, if we connect this to the bigger picture, the
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  Speaker 2: sluggishness Proverbs describes isn't really physical tiredness. It's more like
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  Speaker 2: moral and spiritual inertia.
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  Speaker 1: Moral inertia. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Because fear often masquerades as preparation. We convince ourselves we're just,
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  Speaker 2: you know, gathering more data or waiting for the right moment.
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  Speaker 1: Like we're being responsible.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. But it's kind of like leaving a car engine
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  Speaker 2: idling in the driveway.
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  Speaker 1: Burning gas for no reason. Right.
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  Speaker 2: You are burning the exact same amount of mental energy, worrying, planning, stressing,
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  Speaker 2: as you would if you were actually driving.
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  Speaker 1: But you're going absolutely nowhere.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely. And that idling state directly connects to the mandate
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  Speaker 2: from James chapter 1.
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  Speaker 1: Ah, the warning against being merely a hearer of the word?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, a hearer and not a doer. From a cognitive standpoint,
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  Speaker 2: holding onto a calling without acting on it creates massive
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  Speaker 2: cognitive dissonance.
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  Speaker 1: Because you know what to do, but you aren't doing it.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. Having the knowledge is utterly useless if fear stops
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  Speaker 2: the execution. It's actually psychologically draining. Wow. Yeah, the ancient
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  Speaker 2: writers were basically diagnosing this exact state of inertia.
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  Speaker 1: And we think we're waiting for perfect conditions, but we're
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  Speaker 1: just letting the ember go cold because we're afraid of
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  Speaker 1: the smoke.
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  Speaker 2: That is a great way to put it.
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  Speaker 1: So the ultimate takeaway for you today is that you
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  Speaker 1: cannot think your way out of fear.
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  Speaker 2: No, you really can't.
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  Speaker 1: You have to act your way through it because hesitation
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  Speaker 1: just stalls your responsibilities.
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  Speaker 2: Moving from hearing to doing is the only way to
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  Speaker 2: break that inertia.
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  Speaker 1: Which leaves us with a final thought for you to
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  Speaker 1: chew on.
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  Speaker 2: The big question.
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  Speaker 1: Right. If James warns against just being a hearer and
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  Speaker 1: Paul commands us to fan the flame, ask yourself something.
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  Speaker 2: What's the dying ember?
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  Speaker 1: Exactly. What is the one specific talent or calling in
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  Speaker 1: your life right now that you are leaving as a
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  Speaker 1: dying ember? Simply because you are too afraid of what
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  Speaker 1: might happen if it actually catches fire. It might be
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  Speaker 1: time to unglue your feet, step off the edge and
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  Speaker 1: just jump.