Do Not Be Afraid

Peter: Fear.  Fear is real for many people, if not all people.  As the saying goes, ‘of course I am afraid, what sane man isn’t?’  There is a deep truth to this, and as deep a truth in Jesus, who says to not be afraid.  I thought it was interesting that Laurel grouped so many various fears together though.  She had this list, including things such as fear of death, fear of bugs, fear of heights, and other fears.  I don’t know, I just never thought of the fear of heights [guilty] as even in the same category as the fear of death.  I don’t even consider the fear of dying in the same category as I do the fear of death.  It was interesting for me to see fear treated the same regardless of the ‘type’ or degree of fear.  So my question I guess, seeing as I’ve never considered the concept of the fear of heights being in the same category as the fear that is loneliness, or of death.  Are there types of fear, do some have a ‘spiritual’ (to reluctantly use the dichotomist perspective) basis while others don’t?  I’ve never considered my fear of heights as having any bearing on my Christian life, but should I?  I would hesitate to say yes, as I see my fear of heights perfectly rational.  My fear of hypodermic needles however, is a bit irrational.  I don’t see Satan working deviously through these fears, however, but I’ve been wrong before.  It’s just a question. 

A second question I have is what in the world did Laurel mean by saying she believes that it is our ‘job to run full steam into culture, church, relationships, society, and Satan.’?  She started by saying that she believes that daily we are ‘called’ not to fear.  She also said that we must know the word of God in order to wrestle with our fears that we don’t have anymore… and finished off by saying we need to run full steam into all of these random places such as relationships, because, why, I don’t know, he’s on third and I just don’t understand.  I mean, it could very well be that I wasn’t following her properly, but I’m also at a complete loss as to how she got from one point to the next, and how in the world this ties in with fear.  Is this her way of saying we need to ‘face our fears’ because Jesus calls us to ‘be not afraid’?

Lastly, she stated in her conclusion that fear and faith have a lot in common, and proceeded to state how, besides relating to the unseen, they were opposites.  Besides that being an amusing coupling of statements, it was intriguing.  I guess I’ve always considered doubt more of an opposite of faith than fear.  Laurel is the first person I’ve heard ever equate fear as the opposite as faith.  I’ve asked friends and acquaintances what they thought the opposite of faith was, and I got the typical ‘disbelief,’ ‘self-reliance,’ ‘doubt,’ and ‘mistrust.’  Nobody mentioned fear.  That’s not to say the concept isn’t intriguing.  can one have faith and fear?  Are they mutually exclusive?  There is an obvious argument against their coexistence, but at the same time it’s hard to reconcile their mutual exclusivity with the claim that ‘everybody deals with fear, even Jesus did,’ as laurel stakes her claim.  If Jesus did fear, was his faith lapsing?  If he didn’t fear can he understand our fear?  If so, how?  Does he need to understand in order to be ‘willing and able to meet and cure our [fears]?’

In conclusion, I apologize for not really saying anything and merely asking questions, but in this case I have few opinions and many questions.  That being said, I don’t really know what to think of fear.  I don’t consider myself a person racked with fears, but according to Laurel I feel like I should be.  Maybe I’m reading it wrong.  But I’m not doused with self-doubt, gripped with terror, or paralyzed with uncertainties.  Does that make me unchristian?  Laurel gave a stern warning to those who ‘weren’t listening’ or thinking that what she was saying really applied to them, because, she said, if we live life right we will deal with fears, and so I guess I’m just not living like a Christian should, because I don’t have the fears Laurel dwelt on.

Tim: The message was about fear. I will be perfectly honest, I don’t remember much about it, because I was slow in writing this, so other than the few things I scribbled down out the time, I haven’t got a lot. This is probably good for everyone else, because that means I won’t ramble so long. I won’t say much about this one, because my notes don’t help me much in remembering and to go off a few lines I remember nothing about would not do justice to the message. I remember only a couple things, really.

First, I remember that she talked about being just overcome with fear, to the point of being paralyzed. She asked us if we had ever felt that way. I can’t think of a time that I ever have. I don’t know, am I supposed to have felt that way? I have been nervous almost to the point of being paralyzed, but I don’t know if I’ve been afraid like that. She also mentioned a number of common things that people are afraid of, like failure, disappointing God, etc. I guess I’m afraid of those things, maybe? But I don’t know if it’s fear.

That brought me to the question that I pondered the rest of the time. What exactly is fear in comparison to, say, nervousness or worry? I’m always worried that I will goof something up or never find a job, but I don’t know that I would say I’m afraid. I remember some of my more traumatic first days of school upon moving to America, and I don’t know if I was afraid or nervous. I would say more nervous than afraid, but is there a solid distinction? I don’t know. I think in most situations in our lives, we can and do use “fear,” “worry,” or “nervousness” interchangeably. I would like to hear more about what distinguishes fear among those.

The last thing I remember is that she said that fear and faith are similar: they both demonstrate a belief in what we can’t see. But fear says no and faith says yes (I’m assuming that means fear tells us everything will be terrible and faith tells us otherwise). I hadn’t really thought about that before, and it was a cool perspective.