Today Cambodia is celebrating one of the biggest holidays of the year, it's called Pchum Benh. The city is a ghost town as almost everyone has gone back to their home province to celebrate with their families. It's the Christmas of Cambodia, all the family around the country and all the kids at university go back home to be with their family.
That being said, Pchum Benh is very different than a lot of holidays. The premise of Pchum Benh is that the underworld is somehow more open and that ancestors return to their family homes. If the family has done the necessary rituals of temple visits, sacrifices, etc... then they are safe. However, if the family's rituals were not enough or not done properly, the ancestors will curse them, bringing illness and bad fortune. The reality is that a lot of people are terrified of this holiday. They are nervous about not doing the right tasks or scared that their children won't take part as they should.
I have a friend who said when he first became Christian and didn't do the rituals, he was so scared that spirits were going to come for him during this holiday, he would have nightmares about the consequences of his inaction.
Now a lot of my readers in the Western world will read this and think of it as primitive, maybe even silly. But really, it's not that far fetched. When we act out of fear, we do crazy things to try and protect ourselves. Things that are counterintuitive and don't make logical sense.
My heart is broken for my country right now because a majority of it is living out of fear. We are afraid of terrorists, so we discriminate against an entire people group. Tell me how that makes sense? Fear is a powerful force. It makes us do things that we believe will protect us, whether there is evidence of that protection or not.
I used to live a large portion of my life out of fear. I won't leave this house because I'm afraid of who will be the scapegoat if I do. I won't leave this relationship because I'm afraid of what you will do to yourself if I do. I won't go for that new job because I'm afraid of hurting the people at my old job. The list goes on... I just primarily made decisions based on what I thought would be the least scary option. That's how Cambodian culture lives, right now that is American politics. It's a terrible way to live.
Suppose we lived out of anticipation rather than fear? Instead of being afraid of what the changes will bring, what if we got excited about the adventures ahead? Some of the best experiences of my life have been the times when nothing went according to plan, and that's okay. I think it's time we looked in the mirror and figured out why we are doing the things we are, whether it be a job, relationships, education, etc... If we are doing it out of fear, let's let it go. Life is too short to live afraid.
