The fear of man is perhaps the major fear many are trapped with and have long been unable to deal with as they manage their relationships with others. It puts a leash and restraint on a person that one becomes incapacitated in a given circumstance to create needed change or to influence it. In extreme circumstances, it has been the difference between success and failure in a given venture or cause.

I want to look at it from two perspectives.

First. The projected fear, which grows from you towards another. This is the fear you have for another man, whether overt or covert. In the case of the former, you are aware of the consequences of going against such persons and you would rather not be in their bad books. So you restrain yourself from certain actions or words in order not to offend, even when it is apparent that they are in error.

When such fear is covert, you leave in denial about the influence of that person over your emotions and choices. You convince yourself that you live or function independently of the endorsement by the object of your fear.

My second perspective is when you knowingly or inadvertently promote such fear in others. This could be because of your personality, a system you have set up around you or your general outlook to life. Some persons deliberately hype their opinions and lessen dissent around them, leading to poor communication from others to them.

To my point. Fear, wherever present always disables and is never an enabler. Fear, whether you are projecting it or promoting it creates conditions of fakery, lies, dishonesty, and leads to systems breakdown. It warps human behaviour and makes people what they’re not.

If you are projecting fear, you are discounting your worth on a continuous basis. You will soon be without relational value. You will need to first settle the question of your identity and true worth, then kill any iota of the fear of man in you.

While doing this, be mindful of the extremities of overestimation and arrogance. Understand that your worth is not in what you do or own, but who you are. So losing or gaining something should never define your capacity to define or defend the truth.

If you are promoting fear, you live in an air bubble. It’s a functional empire that doesn’t exist. A more relatable explanation is that you have bought and built on land sold by seven ọ́mọ́ onilẹ̀s with no relations to each other. Everything around is responding disingenuously to you. You have no friends, just those who are transacting with you.

No matter how successfully you have built that life or organization to thrive on fear, it will crash one day. The longer it takes, the harder the crash. You need to reverse that system and open it up to the fresh air of candour and genuine feedback. No man is subservient to you, each one carries virtue and value you need on your journey.

Final thought. Nothing that is created should ever be feared. The only that can be is what was never created and is self-existent. Men deserve honor and respect but never fear. Where ever you find fear present there will be deceit and all forms of darkness. God is never present there.

So, dare the fear this year. If you forget, remember the rhyme. Peace.