God is love--therefore have no fear

I shared at my church about fearlessness today. The video is below. I share near the end.

My school was selected as the cool school of the week in Memphis. The news crew stopped by my classroom. You can see a glimpse of what we are doing here. Thanks for all of the support!

Learning not to Fear

It’s been awhile since I last posted about what is occurring in my life. The past year has been one of the most amazing of my life, hands down. For the last three years, at the New Year, instead of setting a new year’s resolution which I know I won’t keep, I pray long and hard, seeking a word from God around which I will focus my endeavors for the year. For 2014 my word was Fearless.

Being fearless is not something that comes natural to us as humans. Fearlessness in the way God intended it has to be learned; cultivated through self-discipline and a deepening trust in God and his perfect plan. My word fearless was not an indictment to never be afraid, that is impossible; but it was a reminder to move forward even when I was uncertain or afraid of what I could not see. Part of human nature is wanting to know what is going to happen. We weigh our options in every situation, seeking to minimize negative consequences for our actions, all the while not knowing what will really happen or how our plans will turn out even if we make the best decision we can conceive. I believe one of the biggest fears in the world is loss of control- we are terrified of not being able to decide for ourselves what we do and how we do it. During a project about democracy in my classroom this year, my students and I had a discussion on what it means to be human. We concluded that to be human is to have choice, which is why so many are willing to lose their lives fighting for the premise of democracy. This desire to choose is one of the reasons why we so desperately cling to the idea that we have God given free will. Even most Christians cannot accept the idea that we may live in a world where everything we do is pre-ordained and we do not truly have control over any aspect of our lives. We stop cold in our tracks and think, “God would not create such a world. What would be the point? He wouldn’t intentionally choose some to love him and condemn others from birth without truly giving them a chance to know and love him.” We don’t see such a scenario as fair, and to even imagine it rocks us to our core.

This post is not about whether or not we have free will. Based on scripture I see evidence pointing both ways in that debate and I will not weigh in one way or the other. My point in the ramblings about free will is that we as people live lives decorated by fear. I was listening to a sermon on the radio a few days ago by David Jeremiah in which he said, "the indictment 'do not fear' is in the bible more times than we are commanded to love." I’m not one to say things about the bible without studying it further myself, so I want to make it clear that I have not myself explored this, so if you quote me, do so at your own risk. Although I’m not sure of the validity of this statement, I found it a thought worthy concept.

There is an interesting dichotomy between the words love and fear. 1^st John  4:18 says “ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” The opposite of love is not hate, it is fear.  As Christians we must strive to place our fears in God’s hands, as fear is a road block to truly loving God, for as 1^st John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not know love, does not know God, because God is love.” A big part of loving God is trusting him, if you do not trust that God’s promises are true and as it says in Romans 8:28, “We know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose,” then you may not truly love Him. The only way we as Christians can truly not fear, is to remember the promises God has given us and trust them. The only way we can remember the promises in order to not fear, is to know them, and the only way to know them is to spend time in the word, meditating on it and letting it infiltrate our hearts and minds.

This year brought a lot of new things for me. I went to Sierra Leone in January where my luggage did not arrive until nearly a week after I did, I graduated college, went to Haiti to scope out a partnership for a new non-profit organization, I moved to Memphis, and I started my first real job. Along the way there have been countless struggles some of which left me nearly in tears hyperventilating on the bathroom floor in my apartment telling God only He could get me through. And in those time of stress that I could not believe was real, when the fear and doubt tried to creep in as it inevitably does, I was prepared with the promises of my father to support me. I would throw out Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you, be bold and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” I called out 2^nd Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control.” And Psalm 56:11 “In God I trust; I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?”

I remembered that although I could not see the full picture, I had no reason to fear; God was and is in control. I fought to rest in the peace that is promised in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” And thus, although at times it seemed like the world around me was falling apart, I had no fear. I understood that God has a plan for Ebola, he has a plan for the protests surrounding Michael Brown and race relations in the United States, he has a plan for the Nigerian school girls who were abducted, he has a plan for ISIS, a plan for the unrest in the Middle East and Russia, and he has a plan for me right where I am each day. Nothing that happens in this world happens outside of Gods plan. If it happens he allowed it and he knows what he is doing; so be at peace and fear not-trust in the father’s love.