Forty Days Full - An Invitation To Real Life

at a meeting and didn’t come home at the expected time. I couldn't contact her, so I didn't know where she was. Multiple scenarios began flooding through my mind. "Was she in an accident? Is she hurt? Is she dying on the side of the road somewhere? Why didn't she let me know where she is? Is she mad at me? Is she with somebody else? Is she having an affair? Is she leaving me?" My whole world began to cave in as I gave fuel to fear, until she walked in the door. I casually said, "Oh, hi honey, where were you? I was worried about you." She said, "I forgot my phone and my meeting went long." I had made a mountain in my mind out of nothing. This is the nature of fear. Franklin D Roosevelt said in his first inaugural address that the "Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself." Fear is mostly smoke and mirrors. There is really no substance to it. It is the agreement with fear that gives it power. Some who claim to be powerful declare, "I'm not afraid of anything!" But it is usually the fear of being weak or being taken advantage of that fuels them. Parents use the fear of pain to discipline their children. Spouses us the fear of divorce as a tool to control. Pastors use fear as a tool to get people to do what is good for them. The apostle John also says that "fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 18b). God is not a controller. He is a lover. This is why I said earlier that the fear of the Lord is not the end or the middle of wisdom. The joy of relationship with Him is what moves us, not the fear of punishment or judgement. There is a better way to live. When we let perfect love have its work in us, fear will dissolve into the vapor that it truly is.