What Do You Fear?
By joel | March 20, 2009
(Here’s a guest post by Joel Helbling, co-founder of Adelphus Solutions, LLC.)
Recently I was at a Bible study where the question was asked:
What do you fear? What are you doing to deal with that fear? Is it working?
The question was not rhetorical. Each of us answered, and I noticed that nobody said, “I’m not afraid of anything.”
There was a time when my big fear was the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I was nine, and it was the night before the big field trip. Tomorrow, for the first time ever, I would join my classmates on a trip to a nearby amusement park. I just knew that with my luck, Christ would return in the night, and my shot at the roller coaster would be gone for eternity. So I prayed. “Lord, if you have to come back tonight, then do it. But if it’s at all possible, could you wait until later?” Apparently the Lord saw fit to answer my prayer.
Since then I have picked up more fears. Today my fears fit into two categories. The first category is comprised of those fears which come from my own natural-born, innate talent for being afraid. I am afraid of rejection. I am afraid of poor health. I am afraid of financial trouble. I am afraid of the loss of a loved one.
How do I deal with these fears? I replace them with bigger fears. As I have traveled through life, at length I have encountered some truly scary things, and these things comprise my second category of fears. These are the fears I have learned. Today I am afraid to squander any gift of grace from God. I am afraid to miss any opportunity to encourage someone that He loves. I am afraid to be unforgiving, lest I be unforgiven. I am afraid to come to the end of life, to reach into the ground, pull out a moldering burlap sack and say, “Lord here is the one talent you gave me, minus expenses.” After 30 years, I have come back to my biggest fear. I fear the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
But this is the best fear there is, for it is inextricably and mysteriously intertwined with the love that casts out every other fear. It’s the only real fear. How am I dealing with it? I’m not. I am a basket case. I find myself praying for more time, for more chances, for one more shot at the roller coaster, all because in the end I hope to show that I cared about the things He cares about, and that I did everything I could to capitalize on the grace he has given me.
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