"Here is my point. The cure for the fear of failure is not success. It's failure. The cure for the fear of rejection is not acceptance. It's rejection. You've got to be exposed to small quantities of whatever you're afraid of. That's how you build up immunity. . . One of the greatest things that could happen to you is for your fear to become reality. Then you would discover that it's not the end of the world. Your fear is worse than the actual thing you're afraid of." -Mark Batterson, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day
I love this because it disables fear. It takes power away from our circumstances and gives it back to God. Even if every single one of my greatest fears came true, God is still bigger than all of that, He'll still hold me fast, He'll still have a direction for me to walk and a Kingdom for me to build and live in. He will still be faithful, satisfying, world-defying. Surely, if we as Christians saw the big picture, that the Lord establishes our steps (Prov. 16:9), that He can get us where He wants us to go, even when we fail, our present circumstances would not affect us as severely as they do.
I love our boy Mark Batterson, but I just flat disagree on this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm not afraid of the many things. Don't get me wrong. I'm not some heroic figure with the super power of courage. My life is just not that intimidating.
But...there are things that I am afraid of because they really, in reality, would be as bad as I think they would be. I know what one of my parents deaths would mean (and 'in reality' I probably don't know how hard and destructive it might be.) That's just one.
The rescue from this fear, and 'really' all my fears is more about Christ really being in my life. I think you nail it on the head, our fears don't consume us because we know that God is really there.
The reality that builds up our immunity is not exposure to a real encounter with our fear. That would be terrible. The reality that makes it bearable, doable, is Jesus 'really' being there. Or else we're all hosed.
Hmm, I agree. I believe that being a Christian and walking with Jesus is a prerequisite to this book quote. Without Jesus, every fear is completely legitimate, since there's no hope outside of Christ. But when we look at the object of our fears in perspective under Christ, they are truly not as bad as they seem. Like Paul and Silas in prison in Acts 16. Pretty terrible circumstances in a Jesus-less reality. But in a Jesus-filled reality, there's no debilitating problem. They're singing praises to God.
ReplyDelete