Lent: Give Up Fear

"Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, as you have been; do not be afraid of him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to rescue you from his hand."

- Jeremiah 42:11


I had a friend in high school who had an irrational fear of boats. He refused to go near boats, let alone come close enough to step on the boat. I know that here in El Paso, the fear of boats isn’t a huge deal, but in coastal California where we went whale watching, scuba diving, and sailing as part of regular activities, this made things difficult for my friend. Eventually I asked him why he was so intensely afraid of boats. When he was a young child his family had been out on a boat and had to abandon ship when the engine caught fire - no one had died, but he remembered the flames, the screams, the bobbing in the water, the search and rescue and finally, he remembered returning to shore.  Fear is not unnatural. Fear can make sense in a world with many dangers. Fear can keep us living, breathing, and safe from real harm. But fear can also trap us, forever thinking the danger of the past or even the possibilities of danger will always be the future. Grace frees us from such concrete and definitive futures. Grace began with soldiers hanging Jesus from a tree. All assumed that just like anyone else crucified on a cross, that Jesus would die on that cross. They assumed that his voice would be silenced, that his relationships would end, that his liberationist message would come crashing down. But new life, resurrection, gave rise to the possibility that death was not so definitive.  The Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Romans, these are the people whom the Israelites feared, but God continued to carry the Israelites through those moments. And while those empires rose and fell, God’s Kingdom has never fallen. Let us be reminded that while the threats and dangers that bring fear to our lives are very much still real, God promises that those dangers will not reign supreme. Let us be encouraged that we do not need to hold on to our fear and that God will hold us close through any and all moments of suffering.   - Pastor Tim

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