The bible likens human beings to sheep, which is a challenge for us. Why? Because it's not very flattering. Sheep are not very smart, they are prone to leave the protection and provision of the shepherd and get their lives in a bad place, and they are fearful. Yep, pretty much just like us: we are not nearly so smart as we'd like to think. If we were, our lives would have far less problems. We are prone to wander, to part company from God our shepherd with an attitude of independence. Our fears make us begin to worry at the slightest hint of the possibility of a difficulty. Interestingly, for most believing people, all three of these dilemmas send us running back to the Shepherd yelling, "Help!"
For today - it's the part about fear that I want to talk about most because I think fear can be the most insidious and least obvious to us. Fear shows up in the obvious way - when we are anxious about a pending situation or threat. That's the clearest form of fear and the easiest to identify. When we are fearful, we are never at our best. We cower, we stew, our stomachs are in knots presuming the worst will happen. Often, to fear is to assume the worst, before we have enough information to really know what to do, what decisions to make. So, stuck without information, we fear the worst. A prison.
But there are much more insidious forms of fear that may never get noticed, and yet they are every bit as destructive. The most frequent way we manifest our fear is in our desire to control. We try to control situations, people, our children - in an effort to ensure ourselves that nothing unpredictable or undesirable will happen. In controlling this way, we begin to require people to meet our control need - our fear need. They must meet our expectations, they must turn out just the way I need them to. When they don't we are angry. When we do this, when we live this way, we put people in prisons, and in time we create a prison for ourselves. Unchecked, over time, the prison walls will grow high. The others you have imprisoned will begin to either cower or rebel. Usually it's cower first, then rebel. And you will begin to sink inside the lifeless pattern of prison life - the life we created by our fear.
For lent, and for today, perhaps a growth question is to consider if you have a high control personality. If so - it's likely driven by fear of some kind. If so - this is a place to pray, to ask God to help us. To set us free. Free.... from fear.
