—U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (In his 1933 Inaugural address, at the worst point in the Great Depression)
On the bravery front, a lot has changed since the Great Depression. We still fear, of course. It's a thing we do. But the sources of our fears have a new entrant.
A lot has been written about our fears. New thoughts on the subject are being forged with each passing week of pandemic. And there’s quite a bit about our reactions to them: fight or flight ... or freeze.
Considering how many billions of us occupy this planet, the list of our most common fears (at least, as they were pre-pandemic) is relatively short.
1. Fear of failure
2. Fear of success
3. Fear of dying
4. Fear of commitment or intimacy
5. Fear of spiders
6. Fear of flying
7. Fear of public speaking
8. Fear of heights
9. Fear of the dark
10. Fear of rejection
11. Fear of open spaces
12. Fear of enclosed spaces
While I am not offering a cure to any of these, I do have an idea for how we should regard our fears ... and, perhaps from there, we can at least find a path toward taking away their power over us. FDR was right about one thing, certainly: we need to find a way "to convert retreat into advance."
A start: recognize that the power of our fears over our thoughts and actions is strengthened by our focus on them.
This is the beginning of bravery.
In this week's selection from 1st Peter, he writes to believers about how to deal with the distresses to which they have been subjected, the suffering they are experiencing. Quoting Isaiah 8:12-13, Peter exhorts them: "Do not fear what they fear." They? Peter means we should not fear the same things, in the same way, as non-believers. But how? We all fear.
It's in the focus.
Isaiah told his listeners to focus on God rather than fear what "they" fear. Peter pivots the focus to the Messiah, Jesus. Neither is saying we are not going to fear. Both are saying we need to shift our focus, our attention, our concentration ... to God.
Throughout scripture, we are told to place God first. It's the first commandment given to Moses. It's the greatest commandment according to Jesus. Nothing and no one should be positioned ahead of God. In that light, it is probably not a great surprise that God must also be placed ahead of our fears.
If we fill our thoughts with God, God will fill our dreams.
We need not pretend to be fearless. And we need never be foolhardy in our actions just to prove we are brave. When faced with what we fear, we need to focus on God.
That’s how we turn retreat into advance.
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Portions of this reflection are borrowed from one which appeared in May, 2017 titled What They Fear.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 17, 2020)
CLICK HERE for the readings: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=44
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:8-20
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21
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We won’t be gathering, this week, for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. Maybe we can try a Zoom gathering in a few weeks. But, in the meantime, we can still pray for one another, spend some time in God’s word, and meditate on its meaning.
Keep safe. Keep in touch.
Steve
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