Fear. It’s a universal feeling. Most of us are afraid of something. I don’t mean phobias, like spiders or elevators or heights. I mean clench your gut fear of things like the unknown, death, being alone, getting old and things like that.
What they all have in common is a certain loss of control over life and how we think it is supposed to go. And that’s what makes these other things so scary. These huge fears are things over which we have no control.
Most of the time we can push fears out of our mind, but every now and then they come creeping in and destroy a night of sleep or keep us from focusing on something that needs our attention. Fear generally can make us miserable.
Fear is a big deal in the bible. It’s one thing we share with people from antiquity. The words “do not fear” or “do not be afraid” appear three hundred and sixty-five times in the bible. That’s one “do not be afraid” for every day of the year. And that’s about the frequency with which we need to hear those words, for there is surely much to be afraid about in this weird and wonderful world of ours.
For the three hundred sixty-five times the bible says do not be afraid, there are a thousand and one things that show us that the truth that God will be with us. That God is with us.
The way home from fear is simply paying attention to what is going on around you.
- I will be with you…every single day the sun chases away the darkness and light has the final word.
- I will be with you…there’s a knock at the door and a friend shows up with a meat loaf and the living Christ stands before us in the face of a friend.
- Spring follows winter and life once again greens the planet and dots it with riots of color in spring buds and flowers. I like to think of it as God painting.
- That sometimes fleeting feeling of peace that comes out of nowhere in the moments when we most need it. Not for nothing it is called the peace that passes all understanding. We can’t describe it, don’t know how it comes or why it goes, but it is as real as our heartbeat.
- I will be with you…the gentle exhale that grounds us in the present moment with an assurance that no matter how it all turns out it is going to be okay.
- There is no place where this life can take us where God is not. Yes, even in the wrenching scenes that cross our tv screens each night, God is there in the relief workers, the first responders, doctors without borders and the pilots who fly the planes dropping food.
When we are paying attention to what is going on around us we are bathed in grace. Everywhere we look is the reminder that God is as close as our slightest whisper. All of our senses conspire to remind us that what goes on around us every day is miraculous.
The daffodils poking out of the ground. The moldy smell of leaves making their way into the cycle of life one more time. The feel of sunshine on your face after days of rain. The clasp of a friend’s hand in our moments of deepest loneliness. The holy silence that binds us to one another when there are no words. The sacred tears that slip down our cheeks in moments too wonderful or too terrible to tell.
We will still be left with unanswered and unanswerable questions, but somehow they are beaten back down to size and made manageable when we look around and realize everything is grace. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
Frederick Buechner wrote, “Listen to your life, see it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness, touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Do not be afraid.”
The Irreverent Reverend 