Fear is very interesting. As a base emotion fear is important because it warns a person of danger so that pending harm may be avoided. Yet, fear can be irrational or grow disproportional to a danger and thus may cause actions that are not only harmful to self and others, but bring real harm to the soul. During this current COVID-19 crisis that we are in I have witnessed people gripped by fear doing irrational things, like buying-up a year supply of toilet paper. I have also witnessed people so purposefully void of fear that they also act foolish, like the naked man I saw in a hotel bar wearing only a swimsuit as he drank his martini surrounded by a crowd of people (sorry for the image). The point is, fear is a powerful motivator for both wise and unwise actions and every person so motivated will always see their actions as being justifiable and right in their own eyes. Thus, the important question, “In the midst of fear, how do you evaluate your actions so that you may live rightly (even courageously) but not foolishly?” To me, the answer to this question is what is correctly meant by the often-heard phrase voiced by many Christians “In Christ there is no fear.” This does not mean that Christians should be like the swimsuit wearing man drinking a martini at a bar showing everyone how much they are not afraid. Pretending that danger does not exist, or not being motivated by a very real and rational fear, is not only foolish but is a direct contradiction to those times that we see Jesus telling his disciples to be afraid (see Matthew 7:15 and Matthew 16:6). But, to many people and on many occasions, Jesus also often told people to not be afraid and believe in Him. My favorite example of this is in the gospel of Mark where Jesus tells the synagogue ruler whose daughter has died “Do not fear, only believe (Mark 5:36).” So, what does it mean to live by faith and not by fear?
Think of both faith and fear as two separate ways of life. The way of fear is to horde, hide, protect, fight or flee. The way of faith is different. The way of faith says that instead of hording be generous, instead of hiding be caring, instead of protecting be kind, and instead of fight of flee, be trustworthy and faithful. To “not be afraid but believe” does not mean to have no fear, but rather to listen to and live the way of faith over that of fear.
I saw a great example of living by faith and not by fear yesterday. Those who have economic means (out of fear) have horded. This hording has directly impacted the poor of the land who lack the capacity to gather what they need and also suffer from many services being shut down. Around 25 volunteers from the church designed and carried out a system to safely provide substantial food to the poor. We are unclear as to the total number of people served, but the amount of food given was roughly equivalent to about 8000 meals. This meal number is broken down into 179 families and boxes of food for seniors. The average age of the volunteers was around 70 years old. Yes, they are aware of the danger, they know the medical warnings and they are not people of false bravado or foolish action. They are people of faith…. They are people of faith. A faith that opens up a different way of life not unhinged from fear, but stands above it. In deep gratitude I saw God yesterday at work through the people of faith.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Trent Eastman (3/18/2020)
Concerning the Word of Life 