Today was “Fear Day” in my human development course. Having been given the weekend assignment of looking up various fear or phobia lists on the Internet my students were to come prepared to confess to their particular fears. You can imagine the liveliness of the discussion as we did the usual snakes, spiders, mice, high places and claustrophobia. One girl even said she was afraid to tell us what she was afraid of. There was a lot of joshing and laughing at each other but at some point the mood changed when people started to say, “I’m afraid of failure.” “I’m afraid to have my heart broken.” “I’m afraid one of my parents will die.”
Fear is a very real part of our daily existence; and rightly so because the world can be a very dangerous place. Our beautiful black lab is eighty pounds of tight muscle behind a set of the whitest of teeth. One would think with all that power and equipment she would not need to be afraid of anything. The truth is she startles very easily. The strangest noise that is new to her will create an explosion of protective ferocity. She can go from sleep to full bristled guard with the harshest and nastiest of growls in less than a second. No one in their right mind would try to get by her. If you only heard her you would think we had a guard lion.
One of the commonest commands found in the Bible is God telling us to fear not. The Psalms contain such wonders as “Yeah, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil.” Right now – open your Bible and read Psalm 27. You will not be sorry. It will be time well spent.
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 29, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org