Recently, I was asked to speak at a Men's Retreat in the Midwest. I had a conflict for that date so we videoed the talk which was in two parts. The topic for the weekend was on how to deal with fear. For this Reflections issue, I am including Part 1 of the talk as transcribed. Blessings to you in this beautiful bloom of Spring.
We are considering in these more focused times together the topic of fear and how we might best handle the expression and bondage of fear in our lives as disciples of Jesus. It is well, I think, to say at the outset that fear, like money, is not always a bad thing and, in fact, can operate to protect us from danger. More positively, in relation to God, the Old Testament calls and instructs us to fear the Lord. This includes a call to obedience to his commandments out of reverence, awe and openness to who God is. It also includes a warning as to the consequences of disobedience.
Proverbs 9:10 states flatly that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Psalm 34:7 offers protection and deliverance for those who fear the Lord: "The angel of the Lord encamps around them who fear him and he (that is the Lord) delivers them." The growing apprehension of the Lord God in all his attributes is consonant with a growth in fearing God to the exclusion of all other fears. His closeness, immanence, his very presence is a shield against the fears of men, fears of death and fears of terror: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and Your staff bring comfort to me." Psalm 23:4. The fear of the Lord, then, is a calling, a response to his holiness and to his love. It is practiced in the invocation of his presence and in obedience. The fear of punishment is an active ingredient in relation to a holy and just God who is a consuming fire. Both responses are caught up in the fear of the Lord and healthy in balance and necessary to serve, honor and please God.
The other face of fear we may define very appropriately as the dictionary does: A feeling of alarm or disquiet caused by the expectation of danger, pain, disaster, or the like. A stat or condition of alarm or dread." In this context, the words "dread", "terror", "fright", "panic" and "alarm" may be synonymous with fear but also describe the terrible emotional state that accompanies this fear. These emotions can, and do, produce physical reactions and disease. Now, briefly, here we should also say that "fear" so defined can produce a healthy, if stressful, response by pumping adrenaline to prompt avoidance or flight from real trouble.
Probably another distinction that should be made, particularly in the modern, post-modern era that we are in, is the distinction between fear and anxiety. In fact, it is very possible in our age of anxiousness that many are referring to fear when they mean anxiety. They are referring to a state of anxiety, most often generalized, sometimes specific. In this gathering, in your home or your car, you may be aware of anxieties that walk around with you and that you have brought with you: your finances, your kids, your health, the overwhelming consequences of modern life or the general state of the country, the world and on and on. This more or less constant or chronic anxiety robs us of being present in the present and robs us of joy and peace and contentment with our circumstances.
The Scripture speaks of this state and calls us out. Philippians 4:5 begins: "The Lord is near." The emphasis first is the truth of where existentially God is. He is near, not remote. He is aware, not asleep. His presence is with us. Practice it by calling on his Spirit, inviting and invoking that presence. "Come Holy Spirit". Anxiety, anxiousness and fear make us feel that we are separated unto ourselves, isolated, alone and left to our own strategies and patterns to deal with our projections and apprehensions. With both anxiety and fear, there is the destructive projection into a future, which does not exist as if the worst has already happened and we are living in it.
Practicing the presence of the Lord, looking up and out of ourselves, is the way out of anxiety, so the instruction follows in verse 6: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God." We have work to do, as believers, not just sometimes but in "every situation." There are no exceptions. Gratefulness, prayer and asking all acknowledge the goodness of God and a relationship with him as the sheep of his pasture in dependency and real moment-by-moment belief. The promise is, as we go this way, that the "peace of God, which transcends all understanding (that is the coping, comprehensions and stratagems of the mind) will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus," His peace, his power not just displacing the anxiety but replacing it. One very encouraging practice you may want to do among yourselves here is to recall those times when you did practice his presence, in the midst of anxiety, and knew his peace. Those could be great stories.
Having made these distinctions, let us return to the issue of fear in the dread sense, the guilt sense, the terror sense. This, I would say is an existential fear. It comes with existence. It is referring to those in Isaiah 35 with trembling hands, knees that give way and hearts full of fear. It proceeds from the Fall. It is in our blood stream; it is reinforced through preceding generations and by our experience of life. It is born of deception, based on a lie. It is the enemy of love. It demands that we control our environments, our relationships and our futures, even while there is something telling us that we really cannot. And this produces more fear and more anxiety. Fear stifles creativity and leadership. It emasculates masculinity. It carries us into addiction and all manner of sin. It demands that we take charge but the demand itself mocks us in our weakness.
We could say, then, that fear and control can and do occupy the same space. If you fear, you will try to control. If you are controlling, you are living a fear-based life. Anyone who was raised by a controlling parent, living from fear, knows the destruction to the spirit of a child this brings. I am sure there is no one here and no one reading this letter who knows that reality. So we will move on. Now, it is also true that love and fear cannot occupy the same space. Control and love do not and cannot. But love and pain can and they do if we stop denying the pain.
Thus, I say that the problem of pain is all about love and that love is the answer to fear as we have defined it. In 1st John 4:16-23, the Apostle says this: "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." What powerful, provocative and even disturbing words these are. In this world, a fallen, broken and fearful world full of addiction, terror and horrible acts of brutality and malice, we are like Jesus. Are we? Are we living in fear or in some gray middle ground lifeless area between love and fear that we are separated from ourselves, incapable of impacting our world, leading our families and loving both friends and enemies.
Now I could go several directions from here but I am only going one. It the one that shows up in Isaiah 35 to save the fearful heart. John, who wrote the preceding words, was there when Jesus was transfigured on the Mount; he was there when Jesus suffered, bled and died; he was there with the resurrected Jesus and he was present and baptized with fire when the Holy Spirit descended from above upon those waiting in obedience and prayer. Could the problem be that we are so detached from these realities, from the big "R" as Chambers refers to Reality, Redemption and Resurrection, that it becomes ordinary to read John's words, nod approvingly and go on. What we need it seems is transformation out of fear and into love and for that we cannot go around the Cross. No one can and know the power of his Resurrection.
For emphasis, I will close with this invitation to know the Cross and the blood, delivered by Catherine of Siena in a letter to one under her spiritual direction.
Remember the overflowing blood of God's son.
Christ bathed us in it when he opened His body up and drained Himself with Holy fire and blazing love on the wood of the Cross.
Love held Jesus there fast.
As the saints say, neither the cross or the nails could have held God had it not been for the cement of divine love.
That is why you should always be looking on the wood.
Let the eye of your understanding rest on the Cross always. Here you will discover true virtue and fall in love with it.
Blessings,
Trip