Fear

Scripture passage that caught my attention today. Matthew 8:21-27 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. 27 They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

Observation: Fear may be natural, but it’s not necessary.

Application: Recently a colleague posted a quote that went like this: “If the problem can be solved, why worry? If the problem cannot be solved, worrying will do you no good.” ― Śāntideva

Worry and fear, it seems to me, are two sides of the same coin. Many of us have quite a bit of this kind of spare change on hand. Sometimes our pockets are full of it. It weighs us down, limits movement, and is our near constant companion. We can hear it jingle and, in some kind of deluded way, even be reluctant to part with it. If a beggar on the street were to ask us if we had any spare worries/fear we could share, I’m not sure we would be willing oblige. I wonder why.

Apparently Jesus wonders too. “Why are you afraid?” he asked the disciples long ago. I fear it’s still a good question, even today.

Prayer: Lord, I would like to proclaim that through you all our earthly fears have vanished and that we are free to live as your people. Unfortunately we are often still slaves to fear in one form or another. Perhaps it is too much to ask for all of our fears to be alleviated at one time. If so, could you please whittle away at them one by one? Thank you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: 1 Samuel 24, 1 Chronicles 8, Psalm 57-58, and Matthew 8)