The Antidote to Fear

One summer when I was fifteen or so, I asked my grandmother what it was like to live through World War II. We were seated in lawn chairs with our feet held aloft over sun burned sand; listening the the lapping of the waves as they spent themselves on the shore of Mara Lake.

“Were you ever afraid of what would happen if you lost?”

The question of losing is on my mind a lot these days, for it feels like we are all in a losing game. “Social distance” is no longer giving people air hugs from a six foot distance, but rather the contempt we have for those who have different opinions about how to handle the times. And then there are all the fears. Fear of getting sick. Fear of getting someone else sick. Fear of breaking the law. Fear of the law being obeyed. Fear of the government not doing enough. Fear of the government doing too much. Fear that people will think badly of us. Fear that we might never be able to think well of each other again.

For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. (2 Corinthians 7:5)

Conflicts on the outside. Fears within. Troubled on every side. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Fear is a kind of idolatry. It overruns our minds with its vain imaginations and seeks information that reinforces its position of authority. Catering to its demands is the claiming a new god to whom cowering obedience is always due. We obey it or else—as one obeys a hostage-taker—always hoping that this last concession will end of its reign of terror.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:18)

But what is perfect love? The question has to be asked, so abused is the word within our context. I’ve gone to enough weddings to know the answer lies in 1 Corinthians 13. Pachelbel’s Canon in D is playing while someone is intoning seriously that, “Love is patient and kind; it does not envy or boast. It isn’t proud or rude or self-seeking. It isn’t easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. It rejoices in the truth and has no pleasure in evil. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…” 

Love sounds an awful lot like a person;—and an unbelievably wonderful One at that. Love is neither action, nor feeling—but rather a being with a will and emotions of His own. When Fear has taken hold, it can only be cast out by One who is greater than every terrorizing circumstance and imagined scenario. And, it must be cast out, or we doom ourselves to ever-cower, courage-impoverished and perform the rites of its idolatry. Honouring fear is an affront to God’s nature for it denies His character as all-capable, all loving, all knowing, all perfect.

The antidote to our troubled times is less related to the question of how to manage fear and navigate our conflicts, but rather who casts out fear and resolves our conflicts. God has deposited His Spirit within each believer and it is only in our complete dependence upon Him that the fruit of His Spirit—His own nature of love—is empowered to change the parameters of our lives.

And, it isn’t the first time that a monumental war of fear has raged and people have been caught in the jaws of the unknown as powers clash against powers.

“Were you ever afraid of what would happen if you lost?”

My grandmother paused a few moments before she spoke. Perhaps she was remembering how she felt when her brothers enlisted, or the correspondence she shared with my grandfather before they were married while he was training to be an airforce pilot. She squinted against the over bright sun and looked at one of the grandchildren she prays for every day and said,

“It never entered into our minds that we would lose."

Love bears all things. Believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:7-8)