Living With(out) Fear

There's an album by the metal band "Zao" titled "The Fear is What Keeps Us Here." Couldn't have said it (or screamed it, as Zao does in the final track) any better myself.

Fear is universal, and my, how numerous are the ways in which it manifests itself. Approach anyone--man, woman, or child--ask enough questions, and eventually you'll uncover something he/she is afraid of. There is a whole industry (advertising/marketing) bent on finding slick ways to make us afraid without our even knowing it, keep us afraid, or make us even more afraid than we already are. Some fears are subtle, some overt. Some of us may be phobics, others just scaredy-cats. And if those labels don't quite fit, fear goes by other names too, sometimes perverting perfectly good descriptors: cautious, tentative, risk-averse come readily to mind.

My point is, fear seems an awful lot like something we just have to live with. . . right? Because if we don't, then I'm afraid (no pun intended) I've been wasting a whole lot of my life, immobilized from doing the right thing, or mobilized to do the wrong one. All this because of my various fears.

It turns out, though, living with fear may not be all there is. The band and I read Psalm 3 this week, a chapter which ought to utterly crush our fear. Basically, the Psalm takes us through that moment when all seems hopeless, we come to the end of ourselves, and finally realize we aren't really in control. We realize, as David did, that salvation belongs to God.

There are those who spurn this last part. They say faith in God is a crutch, a weakness. They say all we really have is ourselves, and when that's not enough we can spin tales about a higher power to make us feel better about our circumstances, or we can just face it like men. In other words, their advice is to live with the fear.

Personally, I've lived with fear. If there's a better way, I'll take it. So, I'll keep my faith, along with Psalm 3's reminder that God is sovereign, and I am incredibly not.