What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid

What is your greatest personal fear?  Not what you fear on behalf of others, like potential danger to members of your family or violent political chaos in the world, but what strikes fear in you?  

Can you name the action, which if directed toward you, or a condition forced upon you, would provoke the life-saving, harm-avoidance anxiety we call fear?   Now, take a moment to consider your answer.

I asked a group of Christian leaders this very question recently.  Some said a home invasion; another said the loss of their health care.  

Others mentioned being left alone through the death of a spouse, and being a failure.

However, there was one common answer that seems to be at the root of all the others -- not being in control of our life.

Fear of being out of control, or aspects of our life that may become beyond our control, are for us the archetypal dark unknown of which most nightmares are made. 

In a strange juxtaposition, one of the foundational, if not the primary, truths of the Judeo-Christian faith, is that our life is not our own, and not within our sole control, but God’s. 

In the kind of irony that only human brokenness can produce, what we fear – controlling supremacy by another - is one of the pillars of our faith.  Reform theology teaches that God is supreme, powerful and sovereign.  Everything is God’s, everything belongs to God including our own lives!

What happens when people of faith feel fear?  How does our fear fit with our faith in God and Jesus’ call to love one others?  This Sunday, we'll hear some answers as we look at “Fearing Urgency” in our continuing our series “A Season of Urgency.”