Category: Fear not

2021- We’ve Got One Job

Here we are, facing a new year…but already, rather than feeling we are on the brink of a new and exciting future, most of us are dreading, even fearful, what this week or this year may bring. How can we find the courage to go forward into this year?

Paul wrote to the Philippians in 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own- But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 So, what does it mean to press on?

We are a family who loves stories, and so I thought of Tolkien’s Sam and Frodo struggling to the last ounce of their strength to get up the mountain.

“I’ll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind,” said Sam. “And I’ll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart.”

That is pressing on!

Or little Reepicheep from C.S. Lewis Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

 “My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world into some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise.”

Even Lewis himself kept his eyes on the goal:

“The Christian says, ‘Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists…If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing…I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.”

The early church father Augustine expressed a similar sentiment:

“I look forward, not to what lies ahead of me in this life and will surely pass away, but to my eternal goal. I am intent upon this one purpose, not distracted by other aims, and with this goal in view, I press on, eager for the prize, God’s heavenly summons. Then I shall listen to the sound of Your praises and gaze at Your beauty ever-present, never future, never past. But now my years are but sighs. You, O Lord, are my only solace. You, my Father, are eternal. But I am divided between time gone by and time to come, and its course is a mystery to me. My thoughts, the intimate life of my soul, are torn this way and that in the havoc of change. And so it will be until I am purified and melted by the fire of Your love and fused into one with You.”

So how do we, in a world reeling from a pandemic, divided by politics, increasingly deceptive and violent-

“press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,”

“make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same,”

(Stay) “intent upon this one purpose, not distracted by other aims, and with this goal in view, I press on, eager for the prize, God’s heavenly summons?”

There is only one way- Hebrews 12: 1-2, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

LOOKING TO JESUS!

Not to any human leader, cause, political party, ideology!

He is the ultimate example of pressing on- He endured through all the hate, hurt, pain, and even death until He WON and was seated at the right hand of God. He did not overcome by trying to overthrow- He overcame by laying down His life.

Our instructions for 2021 have not changed. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:34

1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

We have one job in this new year- to love like Jesus.

Do Not Be Afraid

I know, that’s what it says, at least 365 references in scripture to admonish us not to be afraid. But seriously?! When the world seems to be falling apart? People are dying from something we can’t seem to stop or understand. People on the margins are losing their means to support themselves and their families. Racial injustice has led to despair and violence to destruction in our cities. Strong countries are preying on the weak and stripping them of their freedoms and autonomy.

How do we, in the midst of all this, not be afraid?

Let me confess that I do not consider myself to be a brave person. Fear is an issue for me, and so anything I have learned regarding it has come as a result of my personal struggle with it. For me, it all comes down to the following question: Do I choose to trust God, who says I do not need to be afraid?

I have found the writings of Henry Nouwen helpful in this struggle.          

“Our fear of illness, death, and the future takes away our freedom and gives our society the power to manipulate us with threats and promises. When we reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with an everlasting love, then oppression, persecution, and even death are unable to control us. All forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us. We come to the knowledge – a knowledge of the heart more than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is rooted in love, and that nothing can separate us from the love of God…”

Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

 we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The hard part for me regarding those verses is that it doesn’t say that if I love and follow God, I get to escape all those bad things.

It says that EVEN IN all those bad things, I can live with the certainty that I am loved by God and, therefore not abandoned. Not only that, but somehow through Him who loves us, we are able to conquer/overcome all those things.

How in the world?!

“To the degree we are dead to the world, we can live creatively in it. To the degree that we have divested ourselves of false belongings, we can live in the midst of turmoil and chaos. And to the degree that we live free of fear, we can move into the heart of danger. Thus, prayer is the basis and source of all action.” Henri Nouwen

In other words, if I am relying on/trusting in anyone or anything in the world around me, that is a false belonging!

The only times and there are painfully few for 50+ years of living that I have been able to push through my fears and be brave in the face of danger- it was because I had an overwhelming sense of being compelled by the love of God.

My experience leads me to conclude as Nouwen did that a life saturated with prayer- conversation, communion, and connection with God is the only way possible to live as an overcomer in a world of fearful things.

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We do not get to run away and hide!

We do not get to arm ourselves and defend ourselves against our neighbors! It’s impossible to fulfill Christ’s final command with that mentality! It can’t be “us” against “them” because the THEM is who we are supposed to be baptizing and teaching!

I know that for myself- it is only when I get close enough to hear the heartbeat of God for a broken world that I am not afraid.

I Sing!

In the midst of the raging storms of life,

Battered on all sides by injustice and strife, 

Threatened within by my own fear and doubting, 

I flee for refuge to the shelter of Your wings.

There within the shelter of the Almighty God, I sing.

I sing with a voice that is weak and tearful,

A song from a heart that is trembling and fearful.

You are my Rock, my Fortress, and my Foundation.

You are my Strong and my loving Salvation. 

You are my God, and I rest in You alone.

So, I sing in the shadow of Your wings,

Wrapped in the warmth of love never failing,

Absorbing the strength and peace of Your Presence,

Trusting my ways to Your faithful guidance,

Listening to the heartbeat of God, I sing!

(Meditation on Psalm 61, 62, 63)