The Trap of Fear

“The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.” (Pr 29:25 AV)

In the interest of full discloser, the fear of man here is the fear we may have of individual men or mankind in general.  The fear is what they might do or what they might think of us.  However, what the LORD wishes for me to contemplate this morning is the ensnaring nature of fear regardless of its source.  We often say that fear is paralyzing.  When faced with something that is overwhelmingly frightful, we seize up and fail to act.  Or, we run for the hills.  Often, what fear may not do is turn on the ‘fight’ instinct.  It may not motivate us to conquer that which we fear.  This is not an absolute part of our nature.  We may have the flight instinct with certain threats, but the flight instinct kicks in when other enemies appear.  The thing is, fear has a way of freezing us in our tracks.  Worse yet, it has a way of digging a pit deeper and deeper which makes escape all that much harder.  This trap is one that by nature, we often walk into.  It is one that we feel comfortable in for a short duration.  However, as fear turns to terror, it becomes less and less comfortable.  By then we are so ensnared, we cannot see a way out.  Even if we did, the journey there is a long one and often seen as a terror in and of itself.

My wife and I were watching the coverage of hurricane Laura.  They mentioned something about a ride-a-long on a hurricane plane that went through the eye of Laura.  My immediate thought was that I would love to ride on a flight like that.  Now, this is significant.  I do not like flying all that much.  I will do it if I have to, but I prefer not to.  Trapped in an enclosed space 30,000 feet in the air is not my idea of ideal safety.  The last flight I took was a six-hour flight from Boston to Ireland.  I had to take a sleeping pill to get through it.  So, flying in a hurricane chaser would seem to be the last thing I would want to do.  I will admit, if a flight like that ever came available, I know what would happen.  They would have to drug me up so that I wouldn’t go into cardiac arrest.  I would probably puke all over the place.  But to fly through storm clouds and then see that eye has to be one awesome sight.  Turbulence would be out of this world.  But, hey, those pilots fly those missions all the time and almost always come back just fine.  Big monsters don’t seem to scare me.  Those little pesky ones do.  If forced to let go and yield myself to a dramatic experience, the decisions pretty much make their own.  But faced with a large scale threat compiled of limitless detail, that scares me.  Fight off a charging bear with a shotgun, sure.  Keeping a thousand plates spinning so that one does not crash, no way.

Lisa has been diagnoses with the COVID-19 virus.  When we got the news, many thoughts went through my head.  One thought was relief.  The monkey is finally off our backs.  The fear of catching the disease was finally over.  It is in our household.  However, the medical community and the world wants to scare the living daylights out of you.  They want you to react in complete fear.  The thing about this virus is, it is a virus.  There is no cure.  The body must fight it off on its own.  That means, there are no decisions we can make that will automatically lead to a cure.  The decisions will pretty much make themselves.  If she needs more oxygen, she will be given supplemental oxygen at home or transported to a hospital.  The care she is receiving is out of this world!  There are three different agencies checking on her throughout the day.  She has been given medical equipment to monitor her own numbers.  There is nothing more we can do.  The Great Physician is the only cure for this virus and thus, the instruction is quite important.  If I allow fear to take its grip, I will never be free.  If I, instead, choose to trust the LORD, then the snare disappears.  What is interesting about this is God is going to do what God is going to do.  He will heal her.  Of this, I am relatively assured.  So, if the virus is a foregone conclusion, fear is the only monster that needs to be slain.  And slay it we will!