Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.
-Mark Twain
A friend called me a few weeks ago. His mind was racing. He had so much happening. I was driving to the airport and wasn’t anticipating the call itself, let alone all that he shared. I offered some initial thoughts and have had some time since then to consider the very real fears and anxieties he expressed. The very real trouble he was encountering in his life. Some of the very things we experience each and every day.
Some fears and anxieties present themselves when very unique or specific situations arise. Maybe it’s a flat tire which has you worried about how the rest of your day is going to progress. Those sorts of anxieties are hopefully short-lived and start to dissipate as a resolution is neared. Others are more familiar because they may persist for a season or even longer. They may even leave for a time but come back to trouble you or me over and over again. It’s the uncertain future, chronic health concerns, wayward children, and maybe reasons you can’t even identify at this point that can cause this sort of persistent and recurring fear.
They’re all real. I trust you’ve been there. So have I. We all find reasons to be anxious and fearful, whether it be things I’ve already mentioned or countless others. The weight of those things can cause us to become disillusioned, doubt, and lose certain amounts of hope, whether it’s a day of car trouble or even longer. And no one is exempt.
I’ve heard a pastor I have followed over the years tell his story of what he experienced in the early days of leading his growing church. Every night, fear and anxiety would wake him at two in the morning. He described it as a cloud.
Every. Night.
He couldn’t escape it. He prayed, consulted others and sought out professional help all to no avail as the cloud kept showing itself each night. The fear and anxiety contained in that cloud took its toll on him physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, spiritually—it had far-reaching effects. He was broken and at the end of his rope, telling God, “I cannot do this another night.” After months and months of this, there he was, confronting that 2 a.m. cloud yet again. But that night, he was reminded of a verse in Job.
But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night.”
Job 35:10
He was reminded of who God was in the midst of the trouble, dwelling on what He knew to be true. The next night, there was 2 a.m. and the cloud still came but, this time, he had a song. A song that didn’t eliminate everything he was experiencing, but a song proclaiming very real truths while he continued to face very real troubles.
Our goal when encountering fear and anxiety cannot be the impossible task of just mustering up the willpower and wherewithal to make them go away. We live in a troubled world but, even so, have an incredible hope which offers us perspective in that trouble. While fear and anxiety continue to exist, we need to see them through the lens of the gospel. Jesus, Himself, said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
That word for “heart” is sometimes translated as “courage.” We will have trouble but can have courage in midst of it because Jesus has overcome the world in which that trouble exists and promises you and me that things won’t always be this way. It’s easy to give fear and anxiety our entire field of vision but God wants who He is, what He has said, and what He has done to inform how we see and respond to the fear, anxiety, and trouble which will inevitably show themselves. Trying to avoid the clouds is not only futile but takes us further from responding to them well, living in the tension of what we experience here in these days and what awaits beyond them.
The experience of the pastor I mentioned earlier ended up giving way to an actual song. The words that he rested on that one night start the first verse:
Be still, there is a Healer,
His love is deeper than the sea,
His mercy is unfailing,
His arms a fortress for the weak.
There was a cloud, but he had a song. Both cloud and song existed, and they can for you and me as well. Might we continue to believe again and again these truths God has offered to us when the storms come. Whether it’s short-lived, more prolonged, or even ongoing, might we remember the faithfulness of God and the hope we have as his people—not dismissing fears and anxieties but seeing them through the lens of His victory over this troubled world. Might we live well in the tension, for His glory and the eternal joy He died for us to have.
I lift my hands to believe yet again. In midst of it all, I pray you do the same.