How many times have you heard someone say while in the process of relaying a story to you of what has just happened to him or her (most often something negative), "I had a feeling..." or "I just knew..."? How often have you encountered a situation in your daily goings that "didn't feel quite right."? Have you ever looked at someone or walked into some place and had a sudden rush of fear? Its called intuition and its our own personal alert system - our own homeland security for our personal being.
In Gavin DeBecker's book, The Gift of Fear, he states, "The human brain is never more efficient or invested than when its host is at risk. Intuition is the journey from A to Z without stopping at any other letter along the way. It is knowing without knowing why." So why don't we listen to it more? Or maybe you do listen to yours. I have to admit that I'm not very good at listening to mine and when I do, I almost always dismiss it as paranoia or unsubstantiated. I'm going to share a story with you from the book. When I read this example I had a moment, you know like the V-8 commercials where someone hits someone in the forehead- an ah-ha moment.
"A woman is waiting for an elevator, and when the door opens she sees a man inside who causes her apprehension. Since she is not usually afraid, it may be the late hour, his size, the way he looks at her, the rate of attacks in the neighborhood, an article she read a year ago- it doesn't matter why. The point is, she gets a feeling of fear. How does she respond to nature's strongest survival signal? She suppresses it, telling herself: "I'm not going to live like that: I'm not going to insult this guy by letting the door close in his face." When the fear doesn't go away, she tells herself not to be so silly, and she gets in to the elevator.
Now which is sillier: waiting a moment for the next elevator, or getting into a soundproofed, steel chamber with a stranger she is afraid of?"
DeBecker goes on to explain that human beings are the only species that will feel fear and ignore it. His example was of a gazelle grazing on an open plain. The gazelle senses the tiger before it sees it. The gazelle does not ask itself, "Will I offend that tiger by running? I don't want to appear rude."
That story and that example really hit home for me. It did because I am that woman. I hate to admit it because it doesn't make me feel very strong but its true. I can't list the times that I've done something because I didn't want to be rude. I've been that woman waiting on the elevator. I was that woman yesterday. A man rang my doorbell yesterday afternoon. He tried to go in to the spill about selling magazines and needing to collect a certain number of points. I told him I wasn't interested and he asked me for the time then asked to use my phone. For a fleeting moment I thought- No Susan don't go get the phone for him. And then my very next thought was Susan, he may need to call his ride. He's just asking to use the phone. What kind of Christian are you? And I got him the phone. As he was dialing, sitting out on the bench on my front porch, a policeman pulled up. Apparently someone felt uneasy enough about this man and had called the police.
I think there are probably many women out there like me. I think especially if you were raised in the South it is ingrained in you to be polite, courteous, especially where men are concerned. Sometimes its the men in our lives who make light of "woman's intuition." DeBecker compared men and women's perspectives on this issue and states that of course their views on this issue would be very different. He says, "At core, men are afraid women will laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them." Three out of four women will be the victim of a violent crime in their lifetime. When I read statistics like these, they don't mean a whole lot to me until I personalize them. Make a list on a piece of paper, put your name and three of your friends names. Now as you read those names realize that only one of you will be spared the experience of a violent crime- only one!
The Gift of Fear goes on to share some very important information and has an enormous wealth of useful tips. I am only about a third of the way through it but its already become a book that I want every one of my women friends to read- I think every woman should read it.
I always wonder in amazement at the human body. I honestly don't know how someone can look at the way we are made and not believe there is a God. And here again God has equipped us with what we need - intuition. I'm going to work on listening to mine more.
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