The phrase, "I'm sorry."
The thought, "I'll never get married."
An important school assignment.
The desire to stay in bed all day.
What do all these things have in common?
Fear. "I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time" = I'm afraid I'm not important enough for you to enjoy talking to me. "I'll never get married" = I'm afraid no one will ever want me. An important school assignment = I'm afraid that if I don't do well on this, my whole life is over and I'll never achieve my dreams. Staying in bed (bar some illness or serious sleep deprivation) = I'm afraid that what's out there is worse than staying in a dark room with the covers over your head all day.
Fear has slipped so much into our everyday lives, and we don't even notice it. We even say it casually to express disappointment: "I'm afraid that's not possible." "I'm afraid I have other things to do." We say it and don't even notice. "I'm afraid I'm going to forget everything I studied." "I'm afraid we're not going to have anything to talk about." "I'm afraid...afraid....afraid..."
And we are. Confession's a problem for most Christians, but we seem to have no trouble confessing this guy.
We are so afraid, even as Christians, and somehow miss the fact that we are told three hundred and sixty-six times not to fear in Scripture. But even once we realize that...what in the world are we supposed to do about it? I mean, I can stop lying by sheer willpower. I can stop speaking badly about others. I can even stop complaining (I can, I really can). But how am I supposed to stop my sympathetic nervous system from going into overdrive? I can bite my tongue, but my heart rate likes to do a thing of its own.
We've got to go deeper than just fear itself. We have to get behind the fear and look at where it's coming from. We have to understand the problem; fear is just the symptom.
"Avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie." -Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Fear is just a lie." -Tenth Avenue North (inspired by above quote)
"FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real." -Beth Moore
You've probably heard this before. Fear results from believing a lie. Okay. I've known that for years. It didn't help me.
My problem, you see, was that I didn't identify each specific lie until it had completely taken root and established itself in a pretty little fear completely detached from the lie itself. Eventually, I developed an anxiety disorder, all while I was exclaiming, "I don't know what I'm worried about!"
This is kind of an experiment, and I'm doing it to try to help both me and you at the same time. Let's get messy. Let's get practical, because I have a problem when people say things like, "Let God take the pen!" and I'm like, "Great! ...How?" We seem to get lost and tangled in the practicalities; we know what's wrong, and we know what we want the end result to be, but how on earth do we get from here to there?
In the first series I've ever done, let's walk through some fears together. Let's identify the "What if?", the lie behind every fear, follow it through, and find that the Lord can meet us on the other side. Up first, coming at you sometime next week: Fear of Failure (whether getting-an-F-on-a-test or plunging-back-into-addiction-type failure, we'll talk about it).
Have something particular, a fear you want help following through? Email me at eternalsignificance(at)gmail(dot)com. I can't promise brilliance or even profoundness, but I'll try to walk it through.
Meanwhile, encouragement: "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken." Psalm 62:5-6
