Friday, February 26, 2016

Faithful Pathways: No Fear

My dad would hate this entry. My mother lived by the command, "don't be afraid." He thought she was crazy. The disciples in Mark 4 thought Jesus was crazy as he slept in the boat that was being swamped by storm water. When they finally roused him, his question was "why are you afraid?"

Humans are wired for fear. It kept us alive when we needed to hunt for food when other animals were hunting us. Not so much today. Fear is a business that sells stuff, it is a motivator to get people to do what you want them to do, it is an attractor to your programming and your message...which gets people to buy stuff and do what you want them to do.

Churches are not immune to its power.

We don't easily forget our fear. We easily forget the positive messages and happenings. Proven scientific fact. (Interesting article here.) Jesus wasn't upset that the disciples thought they might die, or that they needed his help. He questioned their fear.

Why are we afraid? And what might we accomplish if we lived each moment of each day in the sure trust that in life and in death we belonged to God.

It might save us some money at the very least....

No fear.

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