Life can be challenging. One of the most daunting things can be facing off against overwhelming obstacles. This creates a feeling of intimidation. Intimidation means, "The act of intimidating or making fearful, or the state of being intimidated; fear excited by threats or hostile acts." according to the dictionary.
These feeling are brought about by either internal or external influence. Some of the situations we face cause us to interact with people, or settings that are overwhelming. Perhaps it is a friend, or coworker, who has a very strong type A personality and their directness puts in a position where we feel inferior. Sometimes we are in a setting where doing a task is intimidating because of our perception of how it will go, fearing failure.
I will be honest, standing up to the external influence is easier, at least for me. I am a peace keeper by nature, and I like to diffuse tough situations by interjecting humor or bringing a calm presence. Something this means projecting authority, or strength, in the midst of someone else using intimidation tactics to get their way. I am not a fan of seeing people get bullied.
On the flip side, the internal is where we project that the situation will be intimidating even before it has happened. This is a form of anxiety. I remember talking with a fellow pastor, who has much more experience than I do and who is a very knowledgeable theologian. I always feel like I am not as well versed when it comes to "deep issues" when it comes to faith.
A funny thing happened when speaking to the fellow pastor. I was nervous, but knew that the I needed to talk to them, and despite my discomfort and feelings of inadequacy, I made my way over to ask a few questions. The funny thing was, later on it came out that they were partly intimidated by me, mostly because I have a strong outgoing personality. As an introvert he saw my outgoingness as intimidating, and I say their knowledge as the same. We both brought our own form of self inflicted intimidation to the conversation.
I did this again recently. I felt God leading me to preach through the book of Romans, which is an intimidating book to study, let alone preach. Even as I started working on developing my understanding of the book, I was feeling like some of it was going to be over my head. Then something happened.
Two weeks ago, we began our study through Romans, and wouldn't you know it, once I started preaching, it became comfortable to me. My comfort space is speaking. Weird I know, since so many people struggle with public speaking. I did my homework though, and I studied, and prepared, and then when I started speaking it came to me that I knew this material, and what had been intimidating just minutes before was suddenly a place of confidence.
Overcoming intimidation is no small matter. Whether inflicted on us by someone else, or on ourselves, all of it really is internal. We are allowing the situation to influence our emotions and our responses. An intimidating situation only has the power over us that we allow it to have. Easy to write about from my computer, and much harder to practice when faced with an angry customer who is yelling.
We must work to master our emotions, so that the emotions do not master us. Please know that I am not saying to avoid our emotions. That is dangerous in itself. I am encouraging you to not allow fear and intimidation to dictate your path. What is intimidating you today, and how are you going to face it?
Comments