3 reasons you don't need to be afraid

A friend posted this quote on Facebook: "What is needed, now more than ever, is leadership that steers us away from fear and fosters greater confidence in the inherent goodness and ingenuity of humanity."

The speaker is former president, Jimmy Carter, someone I admire.

And I agree with him that we need leaders who refuse to be afraid or nurture fear among those they are called to lead.

But I disagree with the notion that we can have confidence in the "inherent goodness" of the human race.

The Bible teaches that human beings, while certainly capable of great ingenuity (something I talked about yesterday), the human race does not possess an "inherent goodness." The Bible teaches that we are all born in sin. In other words, we come equipped with an orientation for not loving God or loving neighbor, unless it suits us. Sin--looking out for number one--is our default mode.

You don't have to look far to confirm this truth. We have, as C.S. Lewis wrote, "inside information" on the reality of our sin condition. We need only do an honest self-assessment to see that if we rely on our own "inherent goodness," let alone the "inherent goodness" of the whole human race, we would be in trouble.

But in what I described yesterday as "this fearful and apprehensive" age, we need not fear.

I think that there are three reasons to flush fear from our lives.

First, despite all the insanity and evil in our world, the God we know in Jesus Christ is still in control. 

"In this world you will have trouble," Jesus says. "But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) The world will do its worst, but sin and death will not have the last say. Jesus has come into the world so that all who will turn from sin (repent) and trust in Him as their only hope, will belong to God through all the turmoil of this world and, in total perfection, in eternity. Jesus has conquered every trouble and every fear that this world can throw at us.

Second, the God we know in Jesus promises to be with those who follow Him, always. 

"I am with you until the close of the age," Jesus says to those who follow Him in Matthew 28:20. "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you,” we're promised by God in both Deuteronomy 31:6 and Hebrews 13:5. And in Psalm 27:1, King David asks rhetorically: "The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?"

Third, the thing that our sinful natures fear the most is our own deaths; for those who repent and believe in Christ, that fear has been taken off the table. 

Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;  and whoever lives by believing in me will never die" (John 11:25-26). And these words are backed up not only by the miraculous signs of Jesus capacity to make on good on this promise when he brought the dead back to life, but by his own resurrection, an event confirmed by more than 500 people. 

It is, maybe, this last point that gives us the greatest courage in facing our fears. Belonging to the God we know in Christ, Who has conquered my sin and the sins of the world, Who has conquered death for all who believe, sets me free to live without fear. We can pray without fear. Worship without fear. Love without fear. Change the world without fear. Stand up to injustice and bullies without fear.

We can do all of that because, even if we get killed by the things that others fear, we know that we belong to Jesus for all eternity. 

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes," Psalm 118:9 says. Don't rely on leaders to take away your fears. Civil leaders have an important role in securing safety and justice for a country's citizens, but none can erase all fears. No one can be relied on to take our fears away.

And we can't rely on human goodness or ingenuity either. Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Our inborn sin is too quick to offer us reasons for being afraid and faulty solutions for overcoming our fears. Proverbs 3:5 warns us: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding."

We don't have to be afraid for three big reasons: 1. The God we know in Christ is in control. 2. The God we know in Christ promises to always be with us. 3. The God we know in Christ has taken our number one reason for fear, death, off the table.

Lean on Christ.

Why I Sometimes Avoid God

I find that as a Christian, I can sometimes so enjoy my sin, that I want anything but to be in the presence of God. Consequently, I avoid God.

In those times, I elude facing the blazing light of God's purity and truth. I know that there, as I pray, I will inevitably see my sin as sins, rather than just part of who I am. My view of them changed, I have a decision to make. I will either cling to the sin or I'll have to renounce it, accept God's view of it as wrong, death-dealing, and then leave it behind.

At other times, I shy away from God's presence because I simply feel unworthy as an unholy man to be in the presence of holy God. Like Simon Peter, who witnessed a miraculous sign of Jesus' divinity, I say, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8) "Look at someone else," I think, "I can't bear Your gaze!"

But God is an incessant lover. He isn't so easily turned away.

Out of His great love for us, He sent Christ into the world to die and rise for us.

From that same love, He sends His Holy Spirit now to hound us, to confront us with the reality that we live in the condition of sin with a tendency to violate His will for as long as we draw birth on this doomed planet, and that the only cure is the forgiveness and new life that Jesus Christ alone--the Way, and the Truth, and the Life--gives to those who repent and believe in Him.

Prayer: God, give me the courage to come into Your presence, to unflinchingly confess my sins, which become so clear when I am with You, and to gladly and gratefully receive Your forgiveness given only in Jesus Christ that we might be reconciled. In Jesus' Name, the only Name given among mortals by which we can be saved from sin and death, I ask these things. Amen

"Choosing Courage; Finding Peace"

That's the name of this fantastic piece written by Steve Goodier:

Do you know what my son James dreamed about last night?" a friend asked me. Her son was a bright child of about ten. "He dreamed about YOU," she went on.

"James told me this morning that he dreamed he was being chased by King Kong. Then he met you. I wondered if you rescued him from the beast and James said no. He told me that you hid with him in the bushes while the Boy Scouts beat back King Kong with sticks.'"

You have to appreciate the Boy Scouts!

Are you courageous? For most people, courage has little to do with fighting imaginary monsters in nighttime sleep. It has more to do with fighting those monsters of real life that keep us up at night. Real courage is always found in everyday living. In fact, it is the one
ingredient that, when present in a life, will ultimately bring peace.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the great athlete, died of cancer. Her husband stood at her bedside weeping shortly before she passed on. Babe said to him, "Now, Honey, don't take on so. While I've been in the hospital, I have learned one thing. A moment of happiness is a lifetime, and I have had a lot of happiness. I have had a lot of it."

Babe found courage to meet two of life's universal monsters -- fear of death and fear of the unknown. She chose to remember all the good that life had so generously heaped on her rather than the fact that she would die soon. She decided to meet those monsters equipped with
gratitude and a smile.

Babe chose courage. But what she actually found was peace. You may be stronger than you think! Your real-life monsters can keep you awake at night, or you can allow them to awaken strength and power within you. It's a matter of choosing courage -- and finding peace.

Steve sends out periodic emails with great essays like these several times every week. If you'd like to receive them periodically, just send an email from the email account to which you want it sent to: LifeSupport-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Steve's web site is here.

Michael Beschloss' 'Presidential Courage'

Michael Beschloss' latest book, Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989, is a worthwhile read.

In it, Beschloss chronicles the fortitude demonstrated by George Washington, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan in specific circumstances of their presidential tenures.

In each instance, the Presidents profiled risked their political futures and legacies, pushing policies they felt would help the country, in spite of the fierce opposition they knew they had to withstand.

In several instances, Beschloss portrays chief executives of both deep principle and great political wiliness, possessing that rare instinct for striking politically at just the right time.

That's certainly true of Washington's push for the Jay Treaty with Great Britain, an agreement that many of his contemporaries portrayed as a capitulation to the one-time Mother Country. But Washington knew that the accord would give the US the breathing room needed to develop as a nation, unencumbered by conflict with great European powers. Washington endured withering criticism and unlike his unlucky successor, John Adams, who was turned out of office for his efforts to keep the young republic out of war, emerged as beloved as he had been before the Jay controversy.

Washington, described elsewhere by historian Garry Wills as the greatest political figure in world history, may have had his twentieth-century counterpart in Franklin Roosevelt. FDR wasn't nearly as principled or personally ethical as Washington. Yet, this man who was both a charming extrovert and a loner who kept his own counsel, was able to negotiate the prevailing currents of American isolationism in order to prepare his country for war. Roosevelt, unlike most Americans, understood early that the territorial ambitions of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy would inevitably drag the United States into a world war, whether as arms supplier or combatant. As much as we laud vision in leaders, vision becomes problematic when the leader forsees unpleasant events, like world wars. One of my seminary professors used to tell me that a great communicator is one who can meet those she or he leads where they are and recognizing the variance between their positions, persuades people to gradually see things his or her way. Roosevelt was a great communicator and a great leader who, in the face of great peril, demonstrated presidential courage.

Most of the presidents profiled by Beschloss had certain rock-bottom principles that acted as compasses for their actions, irrespective of the possible political consequences. One exception might be John Kennedy, who finally saw the need for a civil rights initiative--stalled in Congress at the time of his assassination on November 22, 1963--but who was never enthusiastic about it. In fact, I question Kennedy's inclusion in this book.

Beschloss' book definitely aspires to be a popular history, in the best sense of that word. We need more such books, written to instruct interested adults, because, as Kennedy himself once wrote, "A knowledge of the past prepares us for the crises of the present and the challenge of the future."

Beschloss writes economically. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. But each paragraph is apt to reflect a number of original source materials. He may not have an advanced degree in History and he may be viewed somewhat disdainfully by historians who see his failure to talk about the history of ideas as a deficiency, but I like Beschloss. While prevailing ideas, the metaphysics of a given time, are important in looking at historical events, people--as individuals and in groups--make or respond to events. History is really the story of the human race. In this presidential version of Profiles in Courage, a book in which Kennedy wrote about courageous actions taken by members of the United States Senate, we see how some of our better presidents applied courage to their work.

With the 2008 election upon us, voters might very well ask, "When have the people seeking our votes this year demonstrated courage? When have they told constituents, friends, co-workers, or co-partisans things those folks might not have wanted to hear? When have they demonstrated that peculiar blend of idealism and wiliness every great politician...every great President...must have to accomplish great things?"

Occasionally, Beschloss gives attention to the religious views of the Presidents he studies, making me think that he may be planning on writing the very book I intend to write, one on the faith lives of our Chief Executives and how faith impacted their decision-making. In an era in which faith has become controversial, this would be a welcome and helpful book, I think.

Until Beschloss (or I) produce such a book, I recommend Presidential Courage.

[For related reading, see here, here, here and here.]

[THANKS TO: Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice for linking to this post.]

Whether You Agree with Him or Not...

you have to hand it to Senator Chuck Hagel. The conservative Republican, a former businessperson and a veteran of Vietnam, would like to be President of the United States. But he may have kissed those ambitions goodbye with his announcement today. He's joining two Democratic senators--Biden of Delaware and Levin of Michigan--in introducing a Senate resolution opposing President Bush's surge plan.

While current opinion polls indicate that such opposition is popular with the American public generally, Republican voters are more inclined to favor the surge. Hagel may find it difficult to gain GOP support for the nomination.

In its way, Hagel's stance is as courageous as that of Arizaona senator John McCain. McCain is an outspoken advocate of the surge, a position likely to gain him support for the Republican nomination, but unlikely to play well with the electorate in the fall of 2008, if current trends continue.

Bottom line: Both McCain and Hagel, who supported the Arizonan in 2000, deserve kudos for taking positions they manifestly believe in despite the political risks. Their "profiles in courage" are laudable, refreshing in an era when too many pols seem intent on deciding what they believe based on the latest polls. This is especially the case when one considers that, for a long time, Hagel has been a critic of the war and McCain an advocate of greater troop strength in Iraq. No tacking in the political winds, at least on this issue, has been exhibited by either man.

[For an interesting, though perhaps historically flawed, look at Hagel, see here.]