Do not fear.
The only thing to fear, is fear itself.
These words spoken by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his inaugural address helped summoned the courage our nation would need as it fought its way out the Great Depression. While secular in nature, President Roosevelt’s words provide an elegant summary of a key Biblical principle. We can find over 300 different places in scripture that we are instructed not to fear. The only righteous fear is that of the LORD. Fear has a number of horrible effects on a person. Anxiety, stress, anger, despair, divisiveness and fear all seem to grow hand in hand. When unchecked, they have a crippling effect on a person... but we are not called to hide our light under a “bushel” (whatever that is for you) but to instead go forth and share the good news courageously.
Last Sunday we heard about the events of Pentecost. As a believer in the early church, you would be faced with a worrisome situation. Fear would be a logical reaction. Sure, Christ had risen and proven His divine nature, but He then ascended leaving the early church on earth in a society hostile to their growing faith. As they hid in the upper room, something happened that checked their fear. The Spirit of God entered them. Peter subsequently courageously preaches to the crowds and three thousand new believers were added.
I am excited to see glimmers of hope as the pandemic storm appears to be dissipating. But I also see the ominous clouds as COVID-variants and the economic impacts leave many uncertainties and reasons to be fearful. The truth is, in good times and bad there are always reasons to be afraid of sharing our faith. However, we must as a Church, in a loving and responsible way, be ready to go into the world and spread the Good News and contribute to God’s great purpose.
You may be thinking, the pandemic is almost over, but I would offer this thought. In conversations with friends from my time in the Air Force, we found ourselves feeling many of the same emotions as we did during deployments. The end of a deployment brought a certain sense of joy. But the reality of going home never happened as seamlessly as the months of anticipation would hope. Airplanes would break and replacements would be delayed in coming into theater, often adding painful extra days and weeks to the end of a deployment. What is more, on the home front a redeployment meant a return to the same trials and challenges left behind. These coupled with the weight of decompressing from the stresses of the deployment itself, it was common for depression to spread through a squadron in the weeks and months after a return. In the coming months and years we must be mindful and aware the crisis is not over. The pandemic will have lasting effects on our neighbors as the world returns from this year gone.
So as the warmth of summer and hope of the vaccine spread across America, I encourage you to not let fear drive your decisions. For those who were significantly impacted by this year, don’t be afraid that God has forgotten you, He still knows your needs. For those who are afraid that online services will strangle the Church, realize God has used much worse for His glory (a certain amount of caution may be a loving grace we can provide for a bit longer). For those who are worried about the virus, seek the Lord’s wisdom to give you clarity on what risks are appropriate for His kingdom. Ultimately, we all must move past the fears that aim to divide and walk courageously in the Spirit if we hope to be positioned as a Church that can reach and help our neighbors who will be struggling through the lasting effects of this last year.
Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.
John Robbins