Facing Fears

Fear is something that is seldom discussed openly, particularly among men. We are supposed to be the protectors, the providers, you know, the rough and tough John Wayne type. The "show'em who's boss" and "we ain't scared of nothin" kind of leaders for our families.

While I do have much respect for the person who exudes that type of confidence one thing is for certain. Every man has fears. Sure it may not be fear of the dark or spiders(or maybe it is lol) but perhaps you struggle with fear of failure? Or what about death or uncertainty?

During our last outing, we had several physical and mental obstacles to overcome. We were doing a backcountry overnight float trip that would require a lot of planning and preparing plus a decent amount of labor. There were a lot of unknowns such as where we would be able to set up camp and what we could do to handle any type of emergency that may pop up. With many of us being outside of our comfort zones I thought this was the perfect time to discuss fear.

Early Sunday morning we gathered for a time of devotion prior to setting off on the second leg of our journey. As luck would have it, most were awoken in their tents right at dawn by the seranade of three different packs of coyotes! Setting the moment perfectly for the topic I had in mind.

I began to share how fear is a crippling emotion. If it's able to latch on it will greatly reduce your enjoyment of life. Perhaps even rob you of things you love or even your faith and salvation. Most importantly how are we to become Christian role models and leaders in our communities without being able to conquer fear?

We dug into a few pieces of scripture to look for answers for overcoming fear. Joshua 1:9 tells us "be strong and not afraid...because the Lord is with you wherever you go." Romans 8:38-39 says "death nor life, angels nor deamons, present, future nor any powers, height nor depth, or anything in creation will be able to seperate us from God". That sounds pretty great doesn't it! But reading it is one thing, believing it and living like this is another.

To help reinforce this we reviewed the facts about a group of men who lived there lives with ultimate bravery, the apostles. These men went on after the death and resurrection of Jesus to spread the gospel to many nations. They were mocked, beaten, and ultimately killed while doing what God wanted them to do. To me, the type of boldness they had is only explanable by an unexplainable event. The only thing that could have motivated such a movement was the fact that they saw a once dead man rise again and ascend into Heaven!

How great would that be! If only we could have seen this we could act out with just as much courage. But wait, if you believe that Christ did this and believe what the Bible tells us then you too should have this same bravery! When He left us here He sent His spirit to live with us. Just like the Bible says, He is with us now just as He was with the apostles!

If we can truly wrap our minds around this fact then we have nothing to fear, ever. It's a struggle every day, believe me I know, but if each day we can remind ourselves just how powerful God is then we will truly feel His love and be able to share it with others.