Calming the Storm

                     Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; (Psalm 23:4)

                    And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” (Matthew 8:25)

                    I’ve spent the past couple days taking a scalpel to Prof. Willard’s contention that we can live a fear-free life. It seemed important to discuss what it seemed to me that he did not mean, since he says that he doesn’t have time to explain what he does not mean. Today, I think it important to return to what he may have meant.

                    Today’s passages don’t seem to have much in common except the subject of fear. In the first, David says that he doesn’t fear. In the second, the disciples express their fear and their doubt. There are other psalms in which David is more like the disciples, asking God why He has abandoned him. What all the verses have in common is God. David would fear no evil because God was with him. When the disciples were afraid, they went to Jesus and woke the Son of God.

                    The key to dealing with feeling fear, and with being afraid, Scripture suggests, is that we take the fear to God, and look to Him to address that fear or the circumstances behind it. Those circumstances may be external, or they may be internal. As the song says, “Sometimes He calms the storm and other times He calms His child.”

                    The other key is time. It’s easy to listen to what Prof. Willard says and melt into a puddle of tears because we can’t live up to the lofty expectation of fearlessness. We are afraid, and that makes us afraid that we have not only failed, but that we are doomed forever to be a disappointment to our Father.

                    But fearlessness, if it is the goal, is not generally an immediate blessing. It takes time to build the faith and trust. There’s little doubt that you do not fear all the same things that you did when you were a child. The problem is that if we convince ourselves that fear is a sin, and that God will respond negatively if we fear, then fear becomes a sin because it separates us from God. If, on the other hand, our fear is what leads us to God, it can actually be a good thing.