Face It, We’re Just Plain Afraid
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Last week I shared with you a 2025 vision and challenge to embark on the journey to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ than you have ever experienced. Jesus has so much more for us than we would ever dare ask or even dream of. Now a week on, I am sobered with the reality of the powerful force that will keep us from experiencing this abundant life. It is, in a word, fear. The deeper walk with Jesus is not for the faint of heart. Scripture, the Saints of the church and the Holy Spirit all testify that the first steps on this deeper journey will take us across terrain we have been reluctant to cross. These are not steps that bring comfort dressed up in the counterfeit reassurance of growth without cost or progress without pain. It is truly new territory.
The fear I experience as I stand at the precipice of this new journey comes from my complacent satisfaction with the status quo. After all, things are pretty good right now. I have a regular devotional time, a wonderful worship experience every Sunday, several groups of friends with whom I study the Bible and talk about spiritual things, and a general sense of peace with God. Can’t I just leave well enough alone? Also fueling my fear is the knowledge that this next leg of the journey will place me under the white-hot light of honest self-reflection in the power of the Holy Spirit. The deeper journey is not just learning ‘how do we do what we are doing now better’. It is an upheaval, an undoing. It requires identifying all of the obstacles that keep us from experiencing more fully what Christ has for us. Those obstacles, those distractions and impediments to our journey are most likely symbols of our pride, our greed, our sloth, and a whole host of other deadly sins. This part of the journey opens us up and exposes us. And we have to embrace it, enter into it, and let the Holy Spirit do His work in us. It means embracing the prayer of David in Psalm 139, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” This must be the prayer on the lips of every sojourner who is ready to take this deeper journey with Jesus. It is open-ended, unequivocal, and all-encompassing. And for that reason, it fills us with both anxiety and hope. The fear of the unknown and the unevenness of the terrain cause too many to turn back, receding into their cocoon of pallid spirituality and powerless faith. So we need to be honest and ask ourselves, are we truly ready for this journey? Are we ready to let the Holy Spirit fill us with a holy discontent with our status quo Christian life? Are we ready to go deeper? Let me offer one brief illustration.
A few years ago, I was sitting on the beach during a family vacation in Belize, taking in the beauty of the Caribbean as it splashed its way onto the sandy beach. I noticed that there were kids playing along the shore, running to stay ahead of the waves as if chased by some ferocious beast. Some of it was play, but some was a real fear of the power of the incoming waves. Older kids had conquered that fear and were splashing in the waves, even riding the occasional small one up onto the shore. They stayed in water that was still shallow, but they were out in the waves. Still older kids and now some adults had paddled out to beyond the first sets of waves and were swimming in deeper water, riding larger waves and having the time of their lives. As I looked further out, I could see groups of snorkelers, heads down, occasional spurts of water shooting out from their snorkels. Once in a while one would stick his head up and shout to his comrades about the beauty of the fish. Meanwhile, just leaving the docks was a boat filled with a team of scuba divers heading out to the famous Blue Hole. I remembered reading the brochure on the various dives. Novices could go out and do dives of 30 – 50 feet and see incredible fish and coral that the snorkelers would never see. The more experienced could dive further to where schools of rays and other wonders could be seen. Finally, the most experienced divers could use the oxygen/nitrogen mixture to dive well past 100 feet into the Blue Hole and see wonders that few on the planet would ever witness.
The scene illustrated one truth, everyone in their heart wants to go deeper. The kids on the shore were being coaxed out by older siblings to splash around in the deeper waves. Occasionally, one would leave their wave-splashing and cautiously venture out to try to join the older kids swimming in deeper water, only to scurry back to the safer place where they could always feel the sand under their feet. Swimmers looked out to the snorkelers and wondered what amazing sights they were missing. Snorkelers watched the scuba divers motoring past wishing that they could join them on a dive. And I am sure that at the Blue Hole, while those at 30 feet were awestruck by the scenes swimming by in front of then, they couldn’t help but wish that they could join the more experienced divers who disappeared into the deep blue waters below.
So it should be with our life with God. Our transformation is a journey, and journeys are, by definition, movements. When you sit down, your journey is placed on hold. When you stop growing, your transformation stalls. When you ignore your guide and go your own way, your journey may turn into a nightmare. Jesus promised us, “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13) As the Holy Spirit guides us into truth, along this journey of transformation, he will always beckon us into deeper water. And deeper water is always a scary place. Deeper water means less control. Remember the first time you swam out into the waves and suddenly couldn’t feel the sand under your feet? Scary stuff! Deeper water challenges our faith in our guide. Have you ever tried to teach a young child to snorkel? It is completely unnatural to put your face in the water and breathe. I have seen parents almost screaming at their kids, “just take a breath and try it, for crying out loud.” For all their trust in their parents, it’s just not right.
Yet the Spirit calls us, beckons us and gently leads us out into deeper water than we have ever experienced. He calls us to trust, to cling on even more tightly to him, to put our face in the water and breathe. When we do, we also slowly open our eyes, and before us is a sight like we have never seen before. The rewards for going deeper are immeasurable, and God wants that for every one of us. He wants such a level of intimacy with us that we will trust him, walk out into deeper water, and give up control, all just to be with him.
Returning to our fears, there is a question that is logical to ask about this deeper water; “is it safe out there?” After all, there are sharks out there, and stinging jellyfish and strong currents. If we are to go plunging into the deeper waters into which God is calling us, can we be sure that the journey will be safe? The answer is an unequivocal ‘No!’ Jesus does not promise us safety, in fact he warns us that going deeper will cost us everything, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) Going deeper means living ever more completely the values of the kingdom of God, which place us in direct conflict with the values of this world. Going deeper means loving more, sacrificing more, and standing even more firmly as our faith requires. All of these are not safe places to live, not at all.
Perhaps the most accurate words spoken on this subject came from the mouth of a beaver. In C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy Pevensie is learning about Aslan, the great lion that rules Narnia. In hearing him described by Mr. Beaver as a King of the Beasts and the Great Lion, and anyone approaching him will have their knees knocking, Lucy replies, “Then he isn’t safe?” And Mr. Beaver replies incredulously, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But He is good. He is the King, I tell you.”[1]
The one who stands in deeper water and calls us to come to him does not promise us a calm and ‘safe’ journey…but he is good, he is the King! And for that reason, we come.
[1] C.C. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia (New York: Harper Collins,2001) p. 146.
