Why Are You Afraid?

Combatting the Fear Within

Fear often rises up in us when we face the unknown. Sometimes the fear is caused by something we are able to see, like a tornado in the distance, a child running into a street full of cars, or a ferocious animal nearby.
At other times, the fear arises out of our own imagination. There’s nothing present that fuels the fear, it’s only in our minds.

Fear is such a tricky emotion because it’s not always wrong. I remember a pastor telling the story of his 7-yr old son who got separated from him in a convention center at a New York car show. Not allowed to have it announced over a loudspeaker, he searched frantically for 2 hours. He finally found him not 200 feet from where they got separated. His son was not crying, but he jumped quickly into his father’s arms. When he was asked if he’d been scared, the boy replied, “Only a little. I knew you would come, and so I just kept doing this…” as he made the sign of the cross slowly several times.
When the boys father asked him where in the world he learned to do that, he said, “I saw it on TV. It reminds me that God is with me, and I don’t have to be afraid.” Blown away by his son’s gesture, the protestant pastor began to realize how important it is to use our bodies as a tool to remind us to not be afraid.

Have you noticed in scripture how often someone’s body language expresses their fear? Some people hide their faces while others fall down in fear! We also read stories of people shuddering in terror or standing frozen in the fear that grips their bodies. As I thought about that father and son, I realized that both of them had a reason to be afraid. A lost child in a large crowded space causes us to have reasonable fear. And the longer a good outcome is delayed, the more apt our bodies are to go into panic mode.

So when we find ourselves in this situation, WWJA? (What would Jesus ask?) When His disciples feared for their lives in a violent storm, Jesus asked them a question that seems to have an obvious answer! “Why are you afraid?” elicits a modern-day response of “Duh!!” But as I’ve dug deeper into that event, I’m wondering if the disciples fully understood what Jesus was asking. I’m not sure He was really confronting them for being afraid during a storm. In one of the gospels with a little more detail, the writer shares with us that the disciples asked Jesus if He cared.
Was that possibly the reason for Jesus’ response and question?

I have noticed throughout scripture that inquiries made by the Lord are most often a Why? question, not a What? question. And that’s the question I need to ask myself when fear begins to rise. Why am I afraid? That question will hopefully lead me to a comforting reality: My Who is always greater than my Why? In the moment of anxiety and panic, I can rehearse what I know to be true about God. Often that focus will begin to calm my current fearful state.

I learned recently that our English language has used the word “dreadnought” for almost 500 years. Most Navy people would know that the word “dreadnought” became famous when the British launched a battleship with the name. With the ability to hurl an 850-pound shell as far as ten miles from its big-gun armament, this battleship dreaded nought (aka, naught). It feared nothing. As one might imagine, its launch sparked an intense global competition that had every major naval force rushing to build their own dreadnoughts!

In a way that only He could, Jesus was asking His storm-tossed disciples to be a dreadnought. He could encourage them to possess more faith because His presence with them was enough. Sometimes in a gathering of believers I will raise my arms to my side, at my shoulders, in a cross-like stance. As I speak words in prayer or sing a song in worship, I can’t help but be aware of the cross I’m picturing with my body. It’s especially noticeable when the stance casts a shadow on a wall nearby. But we don’t have to wait for a worship service to make a gesture of faith. I love the thought that I can train myself to react in faith instead of fear by remembering the cross.

It seems that little seven-year-old had it right. In a world filled with evil and terror, the most subtle of body movements can remind me that I don't need to be afraid of the dark or the storm or the valley. I think it’s ok to be afraid while we are in the middle of visible scary things, but I don’t have to be afraid of them because I know that God is for me and He is with me.

When darkness hides His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

Dread nought.
Emmanuel.