Meditations from Zion

Of course, we all know, there are hundreds of references in scripture about fear and more than a hundred that specifically tell us to “fear not” or “do not be afraid.” But I think the repetition is for good reason. How many of us really turn off the fear button? Can we stop our thumping heart or self-talk our way out of the moment? Flight or fight is the normal reaction.

Perhaps I have become more aware of this inability to handle emotions while taking care of my 5-year-old grandson. His biggest issue is not usually fear, but sadness. When things don’t go his way, he tells me how sad he is. And what is my immediate response? “Don’t be sad.” Really, how’s that working? It doesn’t.

Can anyone really act on a “not” command? How many times have parents discovered that telling their kids “not” to do something usually has the opposite effect? Is it better to say, “fear not” or “take courage?”

Changing our feelings is not easy, no matter how we go about it. But we do have to admit the feeling is there, don’t we?

Then again, maybe the “fear not” scriptures are saying, “I see you are afraid of this situation (or person), but I can assure you, it’s under God’s control and you are safe.” In other words, maybe God is trying to help me identify the feeling. Unfortunately, at least for me, it usually takes a few rounds of comfort words, logic, examples, and proof, before I can even think about moving out of fear. I mean, honestly, I can grovel around in fear for a long time and never identify it.

OK, but let’s say I finally get it. I admit it: I’m afraid. Don’t I need to know why I’m afraid?

Oh wait. I know this answer: No trust. Sigh.

I have been a believer for more than forty years. You would think I’d have this trust thing down. Theoretically, I know, the only way to truly face fear (that is walk into it) is to trust God is in the midst of the circumstances. We have stories to make this point. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire [don’t tell me they weren’t afraid], but a fourth person was in the flames with them and when Nebuchadnezzar called them out of the flames, their bodies were untouched [Daniel 3:8-30]. We are not told that they saw God in the flames ahead of time; they didn’t really know how this could turn out well, but they went anyway.

Perhaps that’s the real clue. It’s not that we don’t fear, but we move forward anyway with one hand holding the hand of Jesus.

In Russia, Alexei Navalny, after being poisoned by players in the Putin administration, recovered out of country, but then turned around and returned to his homeland. He knew he would be arrested. He walked into the flames (again). Nelson Mandela of South Africa spent twenty-seven years in prison before he was released. Four years later, he became the country’s first black president. He walked into the flames.

My flames are nothing much compared to many others who have sacrificed their lives, on the battle fields both real and political. But the principal is the same.

Julian of Norwich was a medieval anchoress who suffered through the ravages of the Bubonic Plague that devastated her city three times, killing over half its residents. She knew suffering and hardship, and yet she is best known for her radical optimism and absolute faith in the God of love who told her, unequivocally, that “all will be well; all will be well; all manner of thing will be well.”

Our country has suffered much in the last four years (and beyond), from racial strife and poverty to political corruption and the undermining of our democracy to the ravages of a global pandemic and to the devastating effects of climate change. It is easy to be afraid; at any point, one of these things could touch me or my family directly. What if? What if?

Some say the new administration (inaugurated on January 20, 2021) will make a difference. Perhaps. But until fear is faced and conquered in the hearts of the people, distrust will rule.

I don’t know about you, but I can only lean heavily now on my faith in a good God who summons me to be a light in the darkness, and to speak with radical optimism that God is in the flames and we will be well: all will be well. So it’s not just “fear not,” but “be of good courage, I have overcome the world.” [John 16:33]