A fearful world needs courageous people

We live in a moment of fear.

Fear is inherent in our culture; we breathe it in as we walk outside. We speak it into our relationships. We cower before it in the public spaces where we should be able to be free. 

It's part of the natural human condition to be fearful--what's unnatural is the transcendent ability to overcome fear and even defeat it. To replace our visceral, human fears with focus, with confidence, with hope. It is unnatural to believe that's even possible.

But to the Christian, it is the reality of everyday life--or at least, it should be.

And yet many of us still remain trapped in our fear. Fear of our peers. Fear of injury. Fear of failure, censure, death and sickness. We watch movies and read fairy tales about daring heroes, but none of the real life we consume seems to fit that model. What we see in our media most often reflects the basest degeneracies of human life: destructive speech, violence, addiction and anger. Babies and children are murdered, abandoned and hated by their parents. Innocent people hurt while evil people seem to flourish. 

Evil is real in our world, which is why we have always needed courage to meet it. But courage isn't a ready part of our vocabulary anymore. It's one of those lost Old English words Shakespeare used to use, but which now have no real meaning. 

What is courage, anyway? 

It's not the absence of fear. Actually, it's just the opposite--it's the presence of fear, and the defiant choice to push forward through very real danger, because what you're heading toward is worth the pain, or the ridicule, or the suffering. 

One thing fear gets right is that this world is full of danger. We need fear, in a way, to let us know when we encounter that danger--but if our fear doesn't move us toward courage, it's defeated us.

So what do you need, in order to find your courage? The kind that doesn't tarnish, that doesn't quail before hardship, that stands up boldly and says no to evil, no matter the cost?

You need to believe in SOMETHING.

You need to believe in God.

Believe that God is good, that He is active, that He is never listless or lethargic. Believe that He will help you achieve the good He has purposed for you, and for this world. Believe that He will be your courage when you need it.

Believe that God, his holiness and love and truth, the eternal hope we have in Him, is worth anything and everything. 

When you believe that, you become invincible, and everything becomes possible.

When you know in your heart that God is the ultimate good in the universe, when your soul is at peace and confident resting in His truth--the only truth that exists--you will never want to be silent, shrinking away in fearful darkness, ever again. You will take up the cause of the Kingdom with a hope that wells like the ocean inside of you.

This isn't about politics, though the more I think about politics the more I hear this message, the message of hope and courage. In reality nothing in life is about politics--politics are always about life.

And, Christian, your life is more than right or left, socialist or capitalist, individual liberty or common good. Your life is for God--the God who is above all things things and yet can be found working among them. Your life is meant to ask the question, what is God's purpose for this moment?, to seek the answer eagerly, fearlessly, hopefully. 

To find and grasp the truth of God, the truth that He whispers in lonely moments of prayer, the truth written for us in His Word, the truth He has woven into every aspect of Creation, done out of love for us and joy for a good, good thing. God's truth is love, and perfect love drives out fear.

When you know the truth, fear will find no purchase in you. Any fear that gains control over you only does so because you are holding on to it, rather than fixing your attention on God. 

Jesus said it, and I believe it. Fear of the world will destroy you--but fear of the living God will empower you to do great things.

So do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.