Fear Is Better Than Nothing

The sad truth is that lots of people stop practicing their faith. Fervor, gusto, and warm emotions indicating God’s presence disappear, and so people call it quits (ironically, these are the same people who keep saying that they desperately want to find the perfect person to marry, forgetting that at some point in the marriage, they will inevitably wake up one morning and instead of feeling butterflies in their stomach, will feel a tinge of weariness because their spouse has been being annoying – do they call it quits then? But I digress). When these sentimental feelings disappear, the worst thing that a person could do would be to do away with religious feelings and actions altogether, and become apathetic. This is the real danger zone. Christ said that if we are “…lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, [He will] spit [us] out of [his] mouth” (Revelation 3:16). The “who cares?” attitude does absolutely nothing to help us in our lives here on earth. It is better to have a strong opinion about the faith, either way – it shows passion and a hunger for truth. People who lack a conviction show that they aren’t applying themselves. So don’t think that I rejoice when I find out that someone has left the Church because of anger, or confusion, or resentment. It is truly sad. But I do thank God that this person is still trying to interact with the world. And one of the ways I’ve seen people interact with the world after turning their back on Christ is through fear.

The Evolution of Our Affection

In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis writes about love, and with the help of the ancient Greeks, beautifully divides it into four main categories. Lewis' definitions of each type of love - in a nutshell - are as follows:

Storge: Affection; a fondness through familiarity.

Philia: The strong bonds of friendship shared between people; “the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others.”

Eros: The state of being “in love.”

Agape: Christian charity. This love is the highest, and it is unconditional.

While the first three loves come naturally, Lewis writes that without the fourth kind of love, the other types can become corrupt. He speaks of Agape as the love of God, which, quite literally, gives the other types of love the grace they need to become something more than they can be on their own. Storge, Philia, and Eros all point towards Agape, which is the natural evolution of love – if it is allowed to develop.