Fear is a Liar

20 05 2018

Yes, friends and family, if you ever want to become fully awake at 2 in the morning, have someone point a double barrel shotgun in your face! Now that I have your attention, Rock _n here we go.

It was many years back, B.C. (Before Children), I had just arrived home after a long shift at work; Cathy was back in Ohio visiting family. After a long evening of working I was relaxing on the couch watching a little TV when there was a knock. Opening the door, I found myself face to gun, with my neighbor on the other end, face pale and eyes darting back and forth. “John, did you hear a noise outside?” “Yeah! It was me getting home from work!” “Oh, that’s a relief.” And he popped open the gun and took the shells out. “Well, goodnight,” and he turned to leave. I quickly grabbed on to his shoulder and stood there quietly as I considered, do I want to speak to him, or do I want to beat him to an inch of life while the gun was unloaded! I chose the less messy path. “Friend, I don’t care what you hear, screams, crashes or an all-out firefight, don’t you ever come over here again with a gun!” He got the message.

The next day when I was calmer, and my neighbor was less rattled, we talked, and I learned a whole lot about the gentleman. It became evident he had a great fear of the unknown. He was in constant worry of what might happen and felt he needed to always be on his guard. He wouldn’t take the newspaper in fear of the paper being tore up before he could bring it in to the house. He wouldn’t go to an amusement park in fear of getting stuck or killed on a rollercoaster. If someone said something he didn’t like or made him wonder if they meant something else, he would avoid them. Another neighbor invited him to start jogging in the morning with him. He feared he might do something like sprain his ankle, then he’d have to take time off from work which would cause financial hardship on him or even worse, lose his job. Okay, I think you get a pretty good picture of this nervous Ned. So, I’m going to get right to my point.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “The worst evils of life are those which do not exist except in our imagination.” How often have any of us worried about a predicament, that as we mused on the situation became larger than life, only to have it not materialize? In this man’s opinion, fear is one of the biggest cripplers I’ve seen in many lives, and yes, at times yours truly included. I’ve seen individuals with great talents that will not expose them to others because of fear. “If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.” Robert H. Schuller

Certain matters of misfortune eventually invade all of us, there’s no denying that. But do we help the situation by allowing fear to consume our very being? “The presence of fear does not mean you have no faith. Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident.” Max Lucado

For the Christian, fear really should not be the frontrunner in our lives. No matter what, we have a Heavenly Father who cares for us no matter what we’re going though. There’s no promise tragedy won’t happen, but there’s the promise of God he’ll be right there for us.

Joshua 1:9 “I repeat, be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.”

Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

When we left the neighborhood, I never saw my nervous “Traveler of the Rock Road” again, I can only pray life got better for him and fear no longer ruled his world. And friends, if you’re living like that I’m not criticizing you; remember I said I was once there also, so I feel your pain. But I’m also saying there’s an escape from that dreaded emotion if you’re willing to trust Him who said, “I’ll never leave or forsake you.”

That’s all I have on this subject today, but I’m attaching a video by a young man named Zach Williams whose song really brings the truth of fear home.