Robert De Niro played a gangster in the movie Analyze This, who started suffering from anxiety attacks. He gets dizzy, short of breath, hyperventilates and thinks he is having a heart attack. It is hard for him to accept the diagnosis that he, a macho mafia-type, could be suffering from a panic attack. He goes to see a psychiatrist, played by Billy Crystal. It is a very funny movie, but it deals with a very serious problem: getting to the cause of the panic attack. In his case, it is bound up with the murder of his father, which he witnessed and felt guilty about.

This is one manifestation of fear, which is defined as a ‘painful emotion caused by impending danger or evil, a state of alarm.’ Fear takes many forms. For many years I used to wake up in the early hours of the morning in a panic. It was triggered by a dream in which I was about to fall. Dreaming can trigger hyperventilation. The unconscious communicates its anxieties to the brain, in the absence of conscious control or the ability to distract oneself. This is why many panic attacks occur in the early hours. It took me many years to locate the source of my anxiety.

Many phobias have their origin in childhood. We get our facts wrong, or we are threatened by parents or other adults with dire consequences. We also absorb the fears of our parents. My mother was fearful that I would fall out of my second-floor bedroom windows, and constantly warned me against leaning out of them, and even had bars installed in them to protect me. As a result I internalized a fear of heights. In addition my parents were perfectionists who were very difficult to please. My fear of falling became associated with my fear of failing, which triggered the nightmare whenever I was under the stress of a heavy work load, or the anticipation of deadlines. When I learned how to deal with my perfectionism the dream stopped.

The essence of a phobia is anxious apprehension. Fear is an alarm: it alters us to a danger and mobilizes us to deal with it through fight or flight. Phobias or panic attacks are false alarms. There are no real threats but we develop avoidant behaviors to deal with them.

In the Bible fear begins in the Garden of Eden. The Biblical portrait of Adam and Eve is a portrait of ourselves. After their disobedience they hide from God – they avoid facing God. When God calls out to them Adam answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” (Genesis 3:10)

All human beings by our sinful nature hide from God because we are afraid. We have discovered that we are naked before God, and so our natural reaction is to avoid God. That is, at bottom, why most people don’t want to worship, don’t want to pray, don’t want to come to church. They are afraid of being seen by God in their nakedness. God makes them feel uncomfortable. Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

FitzSimons Allison, in Fear, Love, and Worship, tabulates the fears of the human heart:

“We are afraid of being radically honest, because it will lead us to face many unpleasant matters about ourselves and our world, matters that we usually hide and cover up. We are afraid to care, because we have learned in caring deeply we can be hurt deeply. We are afraid to be humble, because we do not think we have the strength and the courage to risk loss of face or the blow to our precious pride that the humble life demands. Our fear of failure causes us, as parents, spouses, students, artists, to hedge or withdraw partially from many undertakings, even from life itself, because if we really put ourselves into an enterprise that is criticized or fails, then we have been criticized and we fail. We are afraid of being human, because being human means being free and freedom creates the hand-wringing anxieties which attend making decisions and the gnawing guilt which accompany responsibility. We are afraid to love, because to love really means leaving the safety of our solitary lives and exposing our hearts where they can be hurt and broken and softened. Finally, we share the mutual and common fear of death that pervades, more than most of us realize, all other fears, tying them together, haunting our lives and endeavors with a threat of meaninglessness, and finally shrouding all with the dark cloud of inevitable annihilation. These are the fears that make each of us an Adam hiding from God….Fear itself knows only the solution of hiding and burying, but the hiding and burying is a hiding from God and a running away from our own cure.” (pp.15,16)

How do we dispel our fears? First of all, we have to find the cause of our fear. We tend to resist discovering the cause. Our tendency is to cover up our nakedness. God responded to Adam’s reason for his fear of being seen naked by the questions: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The nakedness is not the real cause of the fear. It is the disobedience that is the cause. But even confronted with that reality Adam avoids it by blaming Eve, and even God, for putting him in a position of temptation: “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Genesis 3:12) Then, of course, Eve blames the serpent.

Robert de Niro only wants to deal with the symptoms of his anxiety attack. He does not want to deal with his father’s murder. When we receive bad news in the hospital that we have a life-threatening condition, we have the tendency to want to blame someone other than ourselves, even God. We want to fix the symptoms rather than deal with the root cause of our fears, which is our mortality, and our relationship with eternal God.

There is no substitute for exploring the cause of our fears. When we suffer from fear, it is no help to us for someone to tell us not to worry, that everything is going to be all right, that if they prayed more it would go away, that the fear is not real. It is real to the person experiencing it whether it is rational or irrational. We must discover the emotional conflict in our personal history and our unconscious.

There are unhealthy ways of dealing with fear: repression, denial, obsessions, compulsions, addictions, such as alcohol or food.

Archibald Hart in Overcoming Anxiety pinpoints the general life issues that cause fear.

First is insecurity, which must be overcome by developing a solid source of security in the love of God.

Second is rejection, which must be solved by experiencing a system of acceptance.

Third is loneliness, which must be countered by lasting and meaningful relationships.

Fourth is meaninglessness, which requires discovery of a sense of direction and fulfillment.

Fifth is a fear of oblivion which can only be solved by an awareness of your eternal identity in Christ.

In Matthew 14:22-33 the story is told of Jesus coming to the disciples as they were crossing the Sea of Galilee in a storm. It was night, and the disciples were a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves, because the wind was against them. Jesus comes to them walking on the water.

“When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus, immediately said to them, ‘Take courage! It is I.  Don’t be afraid.’

‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’

‘Come,’ he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out,

‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.

‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’”

Do you remember learning to swim? You wore floats, or your parent or teacher held you up until your fear of the water was overcome. You learned to float, and you started taking strokes for short distances, and grabbed at the side to keep you afloat until you learned how to tread water. Gradually you gained confidence and were able to swim on your own.

Peter took small steps toward the Teacher. As long as he concentrated on the Teacher he was able to walk on the water. But when he was distracted by the wind and the waves, he was afraid, and began to sink. Faith is taking small steps toward the Savior, knowing that he will reach out, and catch us, and save us.

I received permission to share this letter from a scientist who teaches in a college on the west coast.

“Thanks again for including me on your list of recipients for your sermons. I thought I would respond at length to this one, as anxiety has played an important part in my spiritual journey.

As long as I can remember I was always anxious about being in social settings. Even though I was always very outgoing and could be the life of the party, I would often be struck with fear at the thought of going out to a new place with a new group of people. I was most often afraid of being stuck somewhere public and getting very ill with nowhere to go. Sometimes this anxiety would get to the point of actually making me feel ill, quite a vicious circle. I would occasionally turn down invitations for no other reason.

I don’t know how, but I managed to survive high school graduation, the entire college experience, and even graduate school without ever having a complete breakdown. In fact, I was even in this condition when I met you. I can remember being quite anxious at the first GenX meeting in your home. All those fine breakfast tacos and me with no appetite!

Well, shortly after you left Christ Church, my wife and I talked to Bill Frey about being confirmed [which in the Episcopal Church involves the laying on of hands for the strengthening power of the Holy Spirit]. He said that we wouldn’t expect the Holy Spirit to do anything miraculous. On the other hand, we wouldn’t be surprised if he did!

Being a scientist, I am trained to look for naturalistic explanations without ever appealing to supernatural agency. I can come up with a few explanations for the total disappearance of my anxiety after my confirmation: I had finally settled into a church (ending a long and stressful journey), I had received several invitations to interview for permanent jobs, etc. However, as a Christian, I am also committed to recognizing the true source of all good and perfect gifts. Thanks be to God!”

Walk towards Jesus.  Keep your eyes on him. He will save you from fear.