Are you afraid?

For as long as I can remember I have loved looking at the moon. There is just something about it that I find quite comforting. It wasn't always that way though. There was a time, when I was really, really young, before I can remember, that I was terrified of the moon. According to my mom, my dad decided to tell me about the man in the moon and it freaked me out to the point where I would throw a fit about going outside after dark. Eventually (and this is another moment I hope is recorded on heavenly DVR) during a visit with my Grandparents, my Granddaddy took me outside one night and talked to me. I have no memory of what he did or what he said but I haven't been afraid of the moon since.

As I was searching the internet looking for stories about facing or overcoming fear, I found one that really says it all just perfectly. The title is “Without Fear”. I'm not sure if it's a fable or if it's actually true, I found it on several websites but none of them had an author's name with the story:

During the civil wars in feudal Japan, an invading army would quickly sweep into a town and take control. In one particular village, everyone fled just before the army arrived - everyone except the Zen master. Curious about this old fellow, the general went to the temple to see for himself what kind of man this master was. When he wasn't treated with the deference and submissiveness to which he was accustomed, the general burst into anger. "You fool," he shouted as he reached for his sword, "don't you realize you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye!" But despite the threat, the master seemed unmoved. "And do you realize," the master replied calmly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"

Throughout my life I have had to face fear many times and it many different ways and, honestly, I think most of the time the fear won. Every time I backed down from standing up for something I strongly believed because I was afraid, every time I compromised my values and got involved with friends and boyfriends who lived lifestyles I knew weren't right for me but I was afraid of ending up alone, every time I let fear of making the wrong or unpopular choice paralyze me to the point where I ended up making no choice at all, it became very easy to excuse away and justify sinning. And that is exactly what the enemy wants. If he can't lead us down the path of sin like some sort of evil pied piper, then he wants us to be afraid. Afraid of the people in our lives who truly do love us, afraid of what we'll do if left to our own devices and, most of all, afraid of God because of what we think will happen because of our sin. God, however, tells us straight out in 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV) “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

I think fear is probably the best tool and the biggest lie in Satan's arsenal. Maybe that's why God tells us so many times in the bible that we should not be afraid. I was taught that if God says something once in the bible we need to pay attention, if he says it again it's extremely important, and if he says it a third time it might as well be carved in stone with the ten commandments. In the bible God uses the phrase “Do Not Be Afraid” approximately 160 times, the phrase “Do Not Fear” approximately 264 times and the phrase “Fear Not” approximately 446 times. (I'm sure the numbers may vary slightly depending on the version.) That's 870 times God is telling us we don't have any reason to be afraid, I think he probably means it.

I'd love to be able to say that I know without a doubt that I will never, ever be afraid again, that I'll be like that Zen master and calmly face any fear and not blink an eye but I am human. But, one thing I know for certain, just like my Granddaddy did all those years ago, God will always take me by the hand, comfort me when I'm afraid, help me face my fears and probably even turn them into something awesome.