Bro. Bot Balbero
Aug. 19, 2009

     We are judged according to the heights we achieve in life. The heights are our successes; the lows, our failures. In between are our fears. If we reach the summit, fear will swallow us because we might fall down. We are fearful in going down as much as we are in climbing.

     There's a man who witnessed a freak accident, of a boy run over by a speeding truck. The young boy's internal parts exploded all around. The father got scared it could happen to his children. So he sold his property and bought a new one far from the road and brought his children there. He put walls around it and built narrow roads. One day, he asked his daughter to bring his siblings away as he drove out, but in the process he run over her, killing her instantly.

     What's fear? It's a strong emotion we feel from foreseeing or becoming aware of danger. The father in our story had a fear, he experienced something.

     As we grow older, we get so many fears in our minds. If we die, what happens to our children, our properties? There's fear, and sadness, in growing old. There's a possibility we would grow old alone.

     Family problems, job stress, economic uncertainties, global conflict, environmental disasters - all of these could be our fears.

     "While their inhabitants, shorn of power, are dismayed and ashamed, Becoming like the plants of the field, like the green growth, like the scorched grass on the housetops" (Is. 37:27). Some plants, even before they can grow, dry up. Some of us are like that.

     There are no absolute guarantees for us. There are no safe plans; perfect, reliable designs; risk-free arrangements. Life seems to refuse to be neat and clean.
"But understand this; there will be terrifying times in the last days" (2 Tim. 3:1). We're now in the last days. These are "terrible" times. All who live risk something. All who run risk falling. All who walk risk stumbling. All who fly risk crashing.

     Effectiveness - sometimes greatness - awaits those who refuse to run scared. To reach out to another is to risk involvement. To love is to risk being loved in return. To hope is to risk despair. To triumph is to risk failing. The shortest route to ineffectiveness - start running scared!

     Faith and fear agree on one meaning: they both believe on what's to come.

     Ps. 27:1-5:

         The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear?
         The Lord is my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid?
         When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh, These my enemies and foes         themselves stumble and fall.
         Though an army encamp against me, my heart does not fear;
         Though war be waged against me, even then do I trust.

         One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek:
         To dwell in the Lord's house all the days of my life,
         To gaze on the Lord's beauty, to visit his temple
         For God will hide me in his shelter in time of trouble,
         Will conceal me in the cover of his tent; and set me high upon a rock.

     Living and risking go hand in hand. To him who is in fear, everything rustles and the "paralysis of analysis" will set in. He will be numbed and will stop thinking.

     The victory over fear is being, more or less, like Moses - the fear of delivering Israel out of Egypt. Or like Abraham in sacrificing his son Isaac.

     The more we're consumed by fear, the farther we feel God is from us. Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God!