Day 3293 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

1 Samuel 12:24 NIV

It’s not when in life we find ourselves afraid that tells the truth of who we are but rather where such fear is found.

Because the simple truth is that fear is a part of life. Though we hesitate mightily to say it, show it, share it, we are all terrified of a great many things in life. Fear of failure, not measuring up or being enough. Fear of more mistakes being made making for more regret up ahead. Fear of missing the importance of these moments which seem to be flying by faster and faster anymore. Fear of losing something, someone leaving, some dream evading. Fear of disappointment either as assumed from others or wrestled with inside ourselves.

We’re all afraid in life of something at some point, at many points. But again, what defines our life to the very point of how we end up living it is where that fear is found and what we do with it once we’ve found it.

The tragedy is that we’ve come to assume we’re supposed to run from it. Not supposed to be afraid. Can’t afford to look unsure, uncertain, unstable. To express fear is to show the world the story we’re not supposed to share because nobody down here has the guts to admit the truth anymore. We’re a people of makeup and make believe always trying to ensure others believe that we’re so good and so solid that we don’t have to even know how to spell the word struggle.

No, for basically the entire existence of mankind upon this soil our souls have bought and sold this idea that we’re to put on airs so as to not affront or offend the others playing pretend as if life is alright being lived behind masks saying we’re okay. Nothing needed over here. Doing just fine. Out here killing it, living it up inside the best life we could craft or create or otherwise consider anywhere within our ability. Yes, we live so wrapped within our own abilities that we’ve come to protect their flaws and faults at all costs.

Even to the foolish point of pretending we’re not afraid.

We don’t need that truth coming out. Nobody else says anything about their struggles or troubles. So we either shouldn’t have any of our own or at the very least we shouldn’t let anyone know that we’re hurting, lonely, ashamed, stained, standing the rain of these tears that seem the next flood we thought God said wouldn’t come. But here inside our all alone, there’s only so much room to run before we’re right back at the reality of all this.

And that reality is that life is hard. It’s painful, prideful, a most pitiable performance as if neither of the two are able to shine through, show through to undo this applause we’re chasing. Every single day in this place brings us a new trial, a new turmoil, some new temptation that’s treating us like both victim and victor all at the same time. We’re given so many apparent options to choose from that we’ve become all but convinced that we needn’t ever lose, fall, fail.

No, just move on to the next idea, the next attempt, the next best intention that intends only to see us win and never weary.

But what’s so sad about all this striving to pretend that we’re not struggling is that within all this foolishness as done to either please ourselves or impress someone else is that we’ve become our own worst enemies. We’ve become unable, unwilling, entirely disinterested in investing any time, any thought into looking toward the truth of where we are, what we stand for, if we’re even standing at all.

We spend no time with the truth anymore.

Simply because our lives have become such lies that we know we can’t risk being the ones who accidentally notice the rug that such honesty would pull out from under us.

And so we’re left living inside such blinders of self-assurance, self-insurance that we refuse to ever come anywhere close to the truth that would set us free from at least some of the misery. See, that’s one of the paramount purposes of Christ’s work that He came to begin. And I say begin because contrary to our common misconceptions against which we still struggle for some reason, His death on the cross only ended half of the story. The rest of our lives started when the stone rolled.

Or did they? Did He accomplish anything in us, for us other than a couple holidays to celebrate and a bit of passing hope felt and found best on the infrequent and fleeting easy days in life? Sadly it seems that all we’ve managed to take away from His will is this wanting for a peace that isn’t coming in this place. We’ve so manhandled His mission that we’ve mangled and mocked it into meaning nothing more than health and wealth. Pray for profit and a little healing every now and then.

As if that’s all He came for, to make our lives easy.

No friends, He didn’t die for an easy peace, some figment of a distant future so well beyond here that we find little reason to worry about it all that often. He died to set us free both in this life and the next, this much is entirely true and should be both widely understood and effortlessly agreed upon by all who proclaim a faith in His Name. But from what? From what did He set us free? The fear of punishment? Yes. The worry of His wrath? Yep. The many mistakes we’ve made and the almost nauseating guilt they bring? Absolutely.

Is that it? I mean it’s a truly remarkable list and one to which we could add plenty of other impossible mercies. But again, is that it? Just a bunch of things dealing with our guilt and regret and shame and stains and these stories we’ve written denying Him glory?

What then of fear? Discontentment? Struggle? Strife? Success? Pleasure? Pain? Persecution? Again, I’m not saying that any of those are now all of the sudden impossible here inside this new life lived trying and striving, tripping and stumbling along this path spent walking, crawling behind the Son. But what I think we often overlook is the change of direction achieved in each of the above. Because He didn’t promise us some instantaneous altering of experiences.

This world is still what it is.

No, He promised to give us new hearts, new minds, new eyes that see things in new ways. Romans 12:2. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is. Then you’ll be able to understand what God’s will is. Then and only then will you be able to accept and appreciate what God’s will is for the fact that God’s will isn’t to change our surroundings but rather to change our hearts.

His will is for us to live good, honest, upright lives in this present age. His will is that by doing good we might silence the foolish talk of those ignorant of His will, His Word. His will is to honor and respect and bear responsibility for the opportunity to better handle this fresh start we’ve been so graciously given. His will is that we spread into all the world sharing the Gospel and making disciples. His will is that we serve Him, honor Him, revere Him, love Him, fear Him.

You see, His will isn’t that we suddenly become incapable of fear in life but rather to harness that reverent respect into a single direction for a change. For so long we’ve lived afraid of not having enough friends, not enjoying enough fun, not making enough money, never driving that dream car. We’ve been afraid of falling short of worldly expectation, failing to impress those around us, finding more ways to disappoint those around us. Our lives have been spent, wasted wasting away inside all this worry about all that’s worthless.

It’s His will that we finally realize what’s truly worth that kind of fear. Because money isn’t worth worrying about. Social standing isn’t worth worrying about. Impressing people with some fake image of perfection or power or prosperity isn’t worth worrying about. To keep the list short, pretty much nothing this world worries about is worth worrying about.

Why? Because this world clearly has no fear of God. No respect for His existence. No willingness to acknowledge His goodness. No ability to admit His majesty. No apparent interest in considering any changes to any of the above. That’s what Jesus died to change. Yes, it was to set us free from our lives lived in sin. Yes, it was to give us a hope and a future. Yes, it was to remind us that it’s His will by which we’ll be judged and have our forever finalized.

Yes, it was to offer us the opportunity to live unafraid of even death. But friends, aren’t all the above only possible if we fear God?

Doesn’t the fear of our Father precede living an upright and decent life? Don’t we need to fear God before we can even understand what sin is let alone how to live fighting against our tendency toward it so as to actually walk free from our enslavement to it? Do we not have to first fear God before our lives can find their meaning? Doesn’t fearing God accomplish the defeat of everything that Christ came to overcome? Death. Hatred. Worry. Want. Fear. Failure.

Again, it’s not that we’ll not experience any of those in life but that when we do, as we will, they’ll just hit a little differently. We’ll still fail, but rather than falling apart, our struggles and stumbles will find us falling into His help. We will still mess up, but He will lift us back to our feet. We will still want things, but those things will no longer be things that benefit us or make our lives more comfortable but rather things such as opportunities to share His Word, send Him praise, tell someone else about this hope He’s given us.

We will by all means still worry at times, but not about temporary things such as pain or persecution but instead about letting Him down or not doing enough to honor Him enough.

You see friends, Christ came to set us free from the life we knew as we lived in love with sin and the selfishness it focused upon. But He didn’t free us from fear, worry, struggle, strife. All of those things are in every way still a clear part of our existence as again, this world is what it is. In this life we will have struggle. In this world we will have trouble. In ourselves we will still stumble.

But take heart, because since He has overcome the world, so too has He then changed not the experience but the outcome.

Indeed, we will still experience pain, but we’ll come to see it as a share of His suffering that allows for us a deeper appreciation for all He’s done, all He still does, all He will do for us. We will still experience persecution, but it will remind us that we are walking away from this world and becoming more and more different from all this disgusting dysfunction we see all around. We will still feel afraid, but it won’t be a fear of man or outcome anymore.

No, our fear will be found inside such a deep respect for God that we fear only letting Him down, not knowing Him enough, not praising Him enough, not making Him proud of us.

Because honestly, that’s all that should matter anyway. Our lives shouldn’t be lived worrying about what people think as their opinions can’t do anything for us when we’re before Him. Our time here shouldn’t be given to worrying about getting everything we want as anything we gain will be left behind and thus is already worthless in terms of forever. Indeed, we gain nothing in living our lives agreeing to be so afraid of life as it’s come to be lived that we agree to live it like everyone is.

We gain everything though through acknowledging what God did for us in Christ and allowing ourselves to understand that such an impossible love and measureless mercy deserves every ounce of our devotion, every second of our attention, every idea of our intention and every surrender of our inventions. We owe Him everything, but until we give Him everything, we’ll be afraid of everything.

But should we ever come around to doing as He gives us the opportunity to do, we just might find that the only thing we have to fear is failing this chance to walk in the love of Christ and share His light with those caught out in the dark of this dangerously depraved and deathly deranged world.

Because the truth is that He has us here for a reason other than worrying about our lives and wasting our time trying to figure out what best to do with them. He’s already figured all that out if we’d just stop insisting our ideas worries louder than His peace. He has our purpose already perfected. And amazingly, it’s one that we can live without fear or worry or even failure. If we would just fear God and remember all He’s done for us, we’d never again worry about what anyone else may do to us, not even what we ourselves might mess up.

No, He is enough as proven on the cross and through the grave. If we can remember that He’s done all that and still forgives all we get wrong, well then we just might find reason to serve Him with such a passion that nothing else matters anymore. That is the way it should have always been anyway. Just seems that we’re still trying to make difficult what He died to make simple.

Fear God, love others, speak the truth, make disciples. Forgive me if I’m wrong but I don’t really see the confusion or complication. And so if our lives still feel confused or complicated, chances are we’re afraid of the wrong things and need to spend a little more time with God than we are with the world.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold