From Darkness to Light

What is Your Fear?

written June 27, 2005

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Yesterday we faced a difficult moment. On our way to a very remote village to attend a church service and assess the possibility of a future medical clinic we came upon an obstacle in our path. It was a river (not a stream or brook; a RIVER) that we would need to cross three times in various places to drive to the village. It was normally passable with a high clearance 4 WD vehicle but this day was far from normal as we had had heavy rains and it was overflowing its banks and flowing very swiftly. I took one look at it and decided we could not drive our Chevy truck across. Julio was driving a high clearance 4 WD ahead of us and felt he could make it so we deferred to his experience and judgment and piled into his truckClimbing into the back of this rusty pickup bed and trying not to get too dirty I had failed to notice something. Lucy was scared. Christine told me this and I looked out to see Lucy standing by the door, not moving. I called to her and a moment later she was at the tailgate, looking a bit frightened. The conversation between us went something like this:

“Lucy, are you OK with this?” I asked.

“No,” she replied.

I said “If you don’t want to do this we can turn back and go home.”

“I don’t want to do this,” she said, without hesitation.

“Seriously Lucy,” I continued, “are you afraid to cross this river?”

Lucy was now confronted with the fact that she was afraid, dealing with fear and making a decision based on that fear. She knew in her heart that the fear was unfounded and that she trusted God with this moment, and what she should do. I knew in my heart the same thing. There was some fear and trepidation in me as well. That water was high and running very rapidly. It looked like a chancy thing to do it. But I deferred to Julio’s experience and God’s protection. And Lucy was about to as well.

“Seriously Lucy,” I continued, “are you afraid to cross this river?”

“Well, if you guys are OK with it I will go too,” Lucy replied, now understanding what she was facing.

I hurriedly said, “Get in the front with Julio; Christine and I will ride back here.”

Lucy got into the truck and a few moments later we were on the other side, adrenaline pumping and hearts beating a little faster. But it wasn’t over yet. A few hundred feet and we snaked back around to the same river. The same scary, fast running, high water we had just crossed. Only it was a worse situation as the water had eroded our entry point, leaving a two foot drop into the river and it seemed more difficult to even begin. We all piled out of the truck and stood, staring at this new challenge. One of Julio’s boys got a large hoe as though to rebuild some road into the river. But Julio decided it was not wise to pass and we returned to our starting point, leaving the trucks and walking the distance to the village (that’s another story for later!).

Christine was very pleased that Lucy exhibited a human emotion that she herself had felt. The fear of the moment gripped us all, but in different ways. The easiest way to express this is to describe our emotions 10 days ago during the armed robbery.

For me it was simple. First my thoughts were for me. I immediately found myself with a machete (a BIG, BIG knife) stuck painfully into my throat, held by a somewhat excited and out of control man. Indeed there were four to six men, all with shotguns and or pistols and/or machetes. They were scary enough; a picture of a ninja or masked terrorist for sure. As my guy with the machete got more and more agitated I quickly imagined several possible outcomes: he would cut my throat, shoot me or maybe just hack off my arm to show he was serious. All my thoughts were about what he would do to me. I was not even aware of what was happening in the back seat with the girls. I was totally consumed trying not to die or get hurt, wildly thinking of what I wanted to offer him that would pacify him (the video equipment, toys we had brought or maybe Christine or Lucy [I joke here, haha]). After a few moments and a few acts of kindness (?) by the ninjas I began to think more rationally, even offering Bible tracts and telling them we were missionaries. Not the makings of a hero, just trying to survive!

Christine was genuinely afraid for herself and her young son back in Oregon. She was probably the most impacted of all of us. Lucy, on the other hand was the least affected and the only one to consider God in this at the moment. She really practiced the verse found in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” So you can see why Christine found comfort in seeing Lucy’s fear at the river crossing. It proved that she too was human.

So what about fear and its consequences? We all have fear don’t we? What does God have to say about fear and how do we control it? Good questions!

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, Deuteronomy 10:12

To fear the Lord sounds so hard. If God is love why do we have to fear Him? Matthew Henry says it like this: “We must adore his majesty, acknowledge his authority, stand in awe of his power, and dread his wrath. This is gospel duty.” On a much simpler note we may relate this to relationships we have. For instance I had a similar feeling toward my father in many ways. Some of us have mentors or other people in our lives who may help us to understand this. We are not to be afraid but to be respectful and awe inspired. We are glad we are chosen to be on His team! David says in Psalms 23:1 “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want…:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…”

Fear no evil. That is our problem. The only fear we should allow in our lives is toward our Lord and God, in a spirit of obedience, awe and respect. But God tells us in Proverbs 3:7 “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” And this, Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil:”

We are to hate evil. “Fear no evil.” The enemy is evil, and fearing evil plays directly into it’s (his) hands. But how do we fight evil and the fear associated with it?

WHAT IS YOUR FEAR? WHAT HAS EVIL BROUGHT INTO YOUR MIND TO FEAR?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Bible Study, Holocaust, The LIGHT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.