No Fear

Fear, I’m afraid, is not something you can live free of. It comes in all shapes and sizes, not all being detrimental to your well-being. Some fears are lifesaving – such as the fear you sense when close to a precipitous ledge or the fear you feel when danger looms. These fears can be lifesaving -  they warn, and therefore protect us.

Some fears are self-induced. For example, watching a horror movie causes fear (until that is, you turn the soundtrack off). These fears can plague your nocturnal hours for a long time, but the fear is a result of choice – yours, no one else’s. For this, my sympathy struggles.

Other fears are irrational – they do not come from any recognisable source, but they hammer away at you, nonetheless. These fears are more insidious than many because it is difficult or impossible to identify their source. Maybe they don’t specifically attach to anything – they are just the result of the dissonance of our broken condition, background noise that distorts and confuses. As a clue, one of the first things Adam said was, “I was afraid … and I hid myself.”[1] His primal fear lingers in his descendants.

Yet other fears are linked to nurturing as much as to nature. We saw our parent’s visceral reactions to things that caused them fear. Maybe a job loss – how will we pay the mortgage?  Maybe a sickness in their families shook and worried them.  We now react much the same, even though it didn’t directly impact us at the time, and despite these fears not necessarily being a part of our present condition.

And then other fears are very real, with an obvious source and predictable results. Stage four cancer is little cause for joy, whether in a loved one or us. To not be afraid in these instances would be either super-human or in-human.

But no matter the source of fear we have the uplifting encouragement of David when he penned, during his own very real fears (often for his life), that the Lord delivers us out of all our fears.  “I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.”[i] He didn’t say we cease to wrestle with fear, or that fear is quickly and easily disposed of. What he does say is, he sought the Lord. This is a matter of time, and energy, likely accompanied by large helpings of fear and anxiety.  He did promise that the Lord would deliver us out of our fears - not so much from them. 

The impact of fear is real enough, but more so, is the deliverance the Lord offers. Whatever our fears (enemies) God is greater. If we look to and keep looking to him we “shall never be ashamed.”[ii]                                                                                                                                                                                        

[1] Genesis 3.10, NRSV.

[i] Psalm 34.4, NRSV.

[ii] Psalm 34.5, NRSV.