Fear

The story is told of a Sunday school class who were memorising Psalm 23 and little Thomas couldn’t get beyond the first verse. On the big day he stepped up to the microphone, grinned at the audience and announced, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd… and that’s all I know!’ – Friends, that’s all we need to know sometimes!

As the onset of winter approached some Native American Indians approached their tribal chief and asked him to forecast whether the winter would by mild or cold. The chief had really no idea and so, to be on the safe side, he told them that they must stockpile plenty of firewood. In the meantime, the chief called the National Weather Centre for advice: “It is certain to be a cold winter,” they told him. The chief, fearing the worst, instructed his people to collect more wood. Two weeks later he phoned the weather centre again for an update, and again he was told, “It will most certainly be a cold winter.” By now the chief was getting really worried and so he instructed his people to collect even more firewood. Another two weeks passed and the chief again telephoned the weather centre for an update. “The weather is really mild,” said the chief. “What makes you so sure that we can expect a cold winter?” The weather expert replied, “Sir, we know because the locals are collecting firewood like crazy!”

Message: Fear (being False Expectations Appearing Real) is the biggest killer of potential known to man. It tries to negatively influence our behaviour, it eats away at our time and enthusiasm; it causes doubt and distractions which, both demoralise and debilitate us. Being aware of and reminding ourselves of this fact helps us to see through the mask, which FEAR often hides behind.

When she was a little girl, Corrie Ten Boom (a Dutch Christian who helped Jews escape from the Nazis during the Second World War) went to her father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough… for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said her father, “when you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?” “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That’s right,” her father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in heaven knows when you will need the strength… He will supply all you need just in time.”

Source: Nicky Gumbel, Bible in One Year – Alpha, (accessed 6/2/2015)

The word “FEAR” is also an acrostic for “False Evidence Appearing Real,” as the following tale demonstrates: Don’t give in to fears or they will overwhelm you. Take for example the small boy walking past a charming old churchyard on a very dark, but otherwise very pleasant, evening. When he walked along lackadaisically whistling a happy tune he was fine. But then he looked over into the churchyard and noticed the shadows and the grave stones, so he stopped whistling and quickened his pace. After a few strides his fear took hold of him and he suddenly got the urge to run, and as he ran his fear turned to terror – on what was, after all, just a dark, but otherwise very pleasant, evening! Let me say it again: If you give in to fear it will overwhelm you, if you give it an inch it will take a mile. Don’t do it. Don’t give it an inch. Instead, choose to control your fear and not let your fear control you.

excerpt adapted from Discover Your True Potential by R. Ian Seymour

Do not be afraid: A pastor named Scott Dudley noted in a sermon how, over the last thirty years, we have created the most risk-averse society in history. We are the most seat-belted, bike-helmeted, air-bagged, kneepad-wearing, private-schooled, gluten-freed, hand-sanitized, peanut-avoiding, sunscreen-slathering, hyper-insured, massively- medicated, password-protected, valet-parked, security-systemed, inoculated generation in history—and all it has done is make everyone more afraid of everything.

In the early 1970s, the Iraqi government arrested a group of American students on trumped-up espionage charges. In order to elicit admissions of guilt, they tortured them. They were told that if they confessed they were spies, they would go free. In other words: ‘Compromise the truth – admit to a lie.’ One by one, as the pressures and the pain mounted, they all confessed to crimes they had not committed – except for one student. The torture intensified and the loneliness of isolation became unbearable, and he came close to breaking. But he didn’t. Finally they announced that they were finished with his case, and that he could simply confess or die. A confession lay before him as they raised a pistol to his head, cocked the hammer and started the countdown. He had heard executions from his cell and knew what his captors were capable of. ‘Sign your name,’ he was told, ‘and you will live,’ but he refused. He closed his eyes, grimaced and prepared to die. They pulled the trigger. When he heard the click, he thought he was dead. The gun, however, had not been loaded. The student was eventually released, but he discovered afterward that every other prisoner who had confessed was hanged in the public square. He was the only survivor. That day he learned a valuable lesson about facing tough times: compromise represents a far greater risk than courage.

Source: James Merritt, Still Standing: 8 Winning Strategies For Facing Tough Times, 2012, Eugene, OR: Harvest House, p.128-129 (in WFT 12/3/2020)