"Facing Our Fears" - Psalm 27 - March 11, 2001

In last weeks episode of "Becker," Bob was told to go into the basement at the apartment complex and fix the furnace but hadn’t gotten to it. Dr. Becker asked him if he was afraid of the dark. Bob replied, "Its not the darkness that scares me, its the evil within it that I’m afraid of."

Isn’t that true with all of us? Are we not afraid of the evil that lurks in the darkness? Don’t we all fear the unexpected, the possibility of failure, the loss of our health, the potential of getting hurt or the chaos of change? These are just some of the things we fear, that hide in the darkness.

Bob chose to avoid the darkness altogether. Rather than take any action he simply stayed away. The end result was that the furnace never got repaired. This is how some folks cope with their darkness. They avoid it and do nothing. Consequently they do not trust or believe that God is there to help.

The psalmist said that "The Lord is my light and salvation." In the darkness, God is our light. God enables us to see our way through. It is our trust in the light of God that enables us to manage in the darkest of times.

In his book, Love is Letting Go of Fear, Gerald Jampolsky, tells a story about a man named Joe. It seems that Joe was overrun by a tractor, not once but twice. He suffered from bilateral spastic paralysis. He became blind, mute and motionless. He was basically in a coma and his doctors told his parents that even a miracle wouldn’t help.

His parents, however did not give up. They trusted in the power of God and lived one day at a time. Joe slowly began to regain his speech and eventually he walked. He even helped others who were in the process of rehabilitation. Through the faith of his parents, Joe saw only "light" and the positive side of everything. He refused to be a victim. He chose to see the world through a window of trust not fear.

I believe that most often we are more like Bob than Joe. It is much easier to avoid the darkness and do nothing rather than trust that God will guide us. In fact, I don’t think we really want any light. For light exposes our fears and therefore we are confronted with them. By remaining in the dark, we don’t have to do anything. Once they become visible, we are challenged to overcome them.

Psalm 27 invites us to trust not fear. It challenges us to seek light, life, strength, courage and direction from God. David knew the meaning of fear more than anyone. He was a fugitive always hiding from King Saul. At one point his life was threatened and he was the victim of many cruel plots against his life. David, however was fearless because he learned to overcome fear through faith.

Once there was a small town and in the town was a church. The members of the church became very upset when a man decided to build a tavern across the street. The tavern was completed and then opened for business. The congregation decided to pray that God would intervene and remove this evil from their midst. A few months passed and a severe thunderstorm occurred. Lightening struck the tavern and it burned to the ground.

The members of the church couldn’t believe that God had anything to do with it. So, they asked their minister if he believed that God had heard their prayers and destroyed the tavern. The pastor replied, "It was an act of God, and I don’t think that our praying had anything to do with it."

Meanwhile, someone asked the tavern owner why he thought his tavern was struck by lightening and burned to the ground. He replied, "I guess God heard the prayers of the people in the church." The tavern owner believed more in the power of God than the congregation.

Do we really trust that God will see us through our darkness and fears? Do we really believe that God cares enough to act on our behalf?

The psalmist had complete confidence that God would see him through anything. Nothing can hurt him. He feels safe and protected. In spite of all his adversity he is confident that the Lord is on his side. The psalmist is saying that no matter how dark it is, we have nothing to fear. "The Lord is our light and salvation, whom shall we fear?"

Besides the need to trust in God, there are two additional messages which appear in the psalm. Notice that in verse 5 it reads, "God will set me upon a high rock." In other words, by exposing ourselves to the word of God through study and worship, God enables us to see from a new and different perspective. We are in a position to see more clearly, to see what we are otherwise unable to see by living apart from the church.

Also, it says it verse 13. "I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." For me, that means that we live in the present, not in the past. Jampolsky also states in his book that "we must live in the now." Yesterday is gone, today is here. The past had a different set of circumstances and conditions. Today is different. We cannot live with the same assumptions and habits. We can therefore overcome our fears by living in the present.

Several weeks ago I started running a mile 3 times a week. Its been at least 10 years since I have worked out on a regular basis. Its so easy to get out of the habit. I had given up since I was having trouble with my left foot. It just gave me too much pain to run. I finally told my doctor and he prescribed a treatment for me. Now the pain is gone and I have been able to run again. I’m telling you this because for all these years I lived in fear of doing permanent damage. All I could remember was how badly my foot hurt every time I attempted to do something athletic.

But, there is more to this story. When I go to the "Y" in the mornings I pass by the pool where senior citizens are swimming. One of them is a man who is 89 years of age. I am encouraged by his positive attitude to live to the fullest each day. You never hear him lamenting over the past, instead he lives solely for today.

We overcome fear by living in the present, allowing today’s problems to be sufficient for toady. We overcome fear by exposing ourselves to the light of God through our worship, study and prayer. We overcome fear by trusting in the power of God to be with us regardless of whatever we face.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio