In most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.
What are you afraid of?
In the gospel, Jesus warns the disciples to be wary of those who seek, not to destroy the body, but those who wish to destroy the soul. In other words, those who wish to crush our spirit.
Jesus contrasts two kinds of peace: a peace that he leaves us and a peace that the world can give us. What is the difference?
The peace that the world can give to us is not a negative or a bad peace. It is real and it is good, but it is fragile and inadequate.
It is fragile because it can easily be taken away from us. Peace, as we experience it ordinarily in our lives, is generally predicated on feeling healthy, loved, and secure. But all of these are fragile. They can change radically with one visit to the doctor, with an unexpected dizzy spell, with sudden chest pains, with a surgery that didn’t go as planned, with the loss of a job, with the rupture of a relationship, with the suicide of a loved one, or with multiple kinds of betrayal that can blindside us. We try mightily to take measures to guarantee health, security, and the trustworthiness of our relationships, but we live with a lot of anxiety, knowing these are always fragile. We live inside an anxious peace.
What Jesus offers is a peace that is not fragile, that is already beyond fear and anxiety, that does not depend upon feeling healthy, secure, and loved in this world. What is this peace?
The phrase Jesus repeats more often than any other throughout the Gospels is “Be not afraid.” Why because He knew more than anybody else that the measure of your life will be the measure of your courage, following Jesus requires incredible courage. It will take incredible courage to be counter cultural, incredible courage to follow the dreams He gives you. It will take incredible courage for you to strive every day to become a better version of yourself and to help the people you love do the same. A deep genuine relationship with God banishes our fears and fills us with the courage to live a great life.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, for I believe that something wonderful is about to happen in your life. I believe that faith overcomes fear. We worry about the future God says I hold the future, we worry about failure, God says walk in my ways and I will bless you. So again, what’s your worse fear? What are you afraid of? What’s preventing you from being who God intends you to be because deep down you know that’s God’s power is greater than your fear.
