Back in my day, we didn't have all those new-fangled technologies to dull our senses and lull us into a comatose silence during long road trips.
We might--MIGHT--have had a cassette player or CD walkman, but once your batteries died (which was shortly after you left your driveway) you were left without your tunes and subjected to whatever hillbilly nonsense your parents were listening to on the car radio.
As a result, I often found myself looking for signs that we were near our destination. Every landmark and road sign was subject to my analytical scrutiny and speculation.
It dawned on me the other day as I was thinking about the ways that FEAR has impacted my FAITH over the years that the "are we there yet" angle is one that FEAR has played a major role in.
Let me explain.
GOD's plan for our lives often invites us to interpret His motives or the deeper meaning. Every blessing or struggle is viewed as a window into God's character and motives. And we then begin listening to our own (often fearful) interpretative spin on things.
And as we FOCUS on the TRIVIAL we DIMINISH the ETERNAL.
Now, I'm not saying that questioning and reasoning has no place in our faith. In the right context it is one of the ways that God grows our faith in Him.
HOWEVER, if we apply the wrong interpretations and come to the wrong conclusions, we might find ourselves fearful of a God that we define in our own failed logic. If the obstacles in our path become larger or more significant than the One who made the path, we will have officially handed over the wheel to FEAR.
Moses had some issues here in seeing the big picture.
"What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'the LORD did not appear to you?'"
This is from Exodus 4 when Moses is conversing with the burning bush. The LORD has to walk Moses through some seemingly endless scenarios as Moses inundates Him with a stream of "what if" questions that any person who wrestles with FEAR will identify with.
Now, it's easy to mock Moses' cowardice from the comfort of our living room. Dude was literally speaking with the LORD via a burning bush. What is there to worry about? How could you diminish the power of God by focusing on your problems when you are standing on Holy Ground?
Simply put, Moses allowed his fear of failure to distort God's message and character. And we do the same thing every day.
When we lose a job.
When we have a fight with a loved one.
When someone betrays us.
When terminal illness strikes our family.
When prayers go unanswered.
With his FEARS dwarfing his view of the LORD, Moses continues to throw "what if" scenarios at the great I AM. #SMH
Finally, in Exodus 4:11 the LORD said to him, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
The problem with my trying to interpret the landmarks and signs on our long road trips is that I had no idea where we were actually going and was reading into those signs and landmarks with a distorted or uninformed view of reality.
The problem with Moses was that he was reading into the future what his own fear of failure saw instead of what the LORD behind the burning bush did.
I did not, at the age of 10, know how to drive a car. My dad did. And yet I spent many a minute in the back seat questioning where we were going and how close we were as if I did have that knowledge.
Moses didn't yet fully understand who God was. He was trying to figure out the entire plan at the beginning because his FEAR OF FAILURE was bigger than his FAITH. And here's the kicker--many of the worries that Moses brings up to God did actually happen. And God knew that they would.
But the plan wasn't necessarily that Moses would know all the details from the beginning and could trust in the plan. It was that when the plan did go awry, he knew enough about his HEAVENLY FATHER to LEAN INTO HIM during those trials and experience a new intimacy and understanding not possible via a pre-journey lecture.
FAITH is ACTIVE, FEAR is PASSIVE.
The lens of FEAR turns the PATH that God has mapped out before us into a pothole-filled trail of terror and lead us to a life of apathy and inaction.
FEAR doesn't want you to act because in doing so, you will grow in your CONFIDENCE and FAITH in the LORD and FEAR will be weakened and diminished.
FEAR focuses on life's obstacles, FAITH focuses on the character of God.
FAITH isn't about always knowing exactly where we are going or how things will turn out, it is trusting the God who does.
This is why Moses, so terrified in Exodus 4 at the burning bush, was able to calmly rally the Israelites standing in between an advancing army and the Red Sea. It was not because Moses suddenly had no FEAR but because HIS GOD was much larger than the "what ifs" of life.
Instead of asking if we are there yet, perhaps we should just sit back and enjoy the ride and kick FEAR to the curb.
We might--MIGHT--have had a cassette player or CD walkman, but once your batteries died (which was shortly after you left your driveway) you were left without your tunes and subjected to whatever hillbilly nonsense your parents were listening to on the car radio.
As a result, I often found myself looking for signs that we were near our destination. Every landmark and road sign was subject to my analytical scrutiny and speculation.
It dawned on me the other day as I was thinking about the ways that FEAR has impacted my FAITH over the years that the "are we there yet" angle is one that FEAR has played a major role in.
Let me explain.
GOD's plan for our lives often invites us to interpret His motives or the deeper meaning. Every blessing or struggle is viewed as a window into God's character and motives. And we then begin listening to our own (often fearful) interpretative spin on things.
And as we FOCUS on the TRIVIAL we DIMINISH the ETERNAL.
Now, I'm not saying that questioning and reasoning has no place in our faith. In the right context it is one of the ways that God grows our faith in Him.
HOWEVER, if we apply the wrong interpretations and come to the wrong conclusions, we might find ourselves fearful of a God that we define in our own failed logic. If the obstacles in our path become larger or more significant than the One who made the path, we will have officially handed over the wheel to FEAR.
Moses had some issues here in seeing the big picture.
"What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'the LORD did not appear to you?'"
This is from Exodus 4 when Moses is conversing with the burning bush. The LORD has to walk Moses through some seemingly endless scenarios as Moses inundates Him with a stream of "what if" questions that any person who wrestles with FEAR will identify with.
Now, it's easy to mock Moses' cowardice from the comfort of our living room. Dude was literally speaking with the LORD via a burning bush. What is there to worry about? How could you diminish the power of God by focusing on your problems when you are standing on Holy Ground?
Simply put, Moses allowed his fear of failure to distort God's message and character. And we do the same thing every day.
When we lose a job.
When we have a fight with a loved one.
When someone betrays us.
When terminal illness strikes our family.
When prayers go unanswered.
With his FEARS dwarfing his view of the LORD, Moses continues to throw "what if" scenarios at the great I AM. #SMH
Finally, in Exodus 4:11 the LORD said to him, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
The problem with my trying to interpret the landmarks and signs on our long road trips is that I had no idea where we were actually going and was reading into those signs and landmarks with a distorted or uninformed view of reality.
The problem with Moses was that he was reading into the future what his own fear of failure saw instead of what the LORD behind the burning bush did.
I did not, at the age of 10, know how to drive a car. My dad did. And yet I spent many a minute in the back seat questioning where we were going and how close we were as if I did have that knowledge.
Moses didn't yet fully understand who God was. He was trying to figure out the entire plan at the beginning because his FEAR OF FAILURE was bigger than his FAITH. And here's the kicker--many of the worries that Moses brings up to God did actually happen. And God knew that they would.
But the plan wasn't necessarily that Moses would know all the details from the beginning and could trust in the plan. It was that when the plan did go awry, he knew enough about his HEAVENLY FATHER to LEAN INTO HIM during those trials and experience a new intimacy and understanding not possible via a pre-journey lecture.
The lens of FEAR turns the PATH that God has mapped out before us into a pothole-filled trail of terror and lead us to a life of apathy and inaction.
FEAR doesn't want you to act because in doing so, you will grow in your CONFIDENCE and FAITH in the LORD and FEAR will be weakened and diminished.
FEAR focuses on life's obstacles, FAITH focuses on the character of God.
FAITH isn't about always knowing exactly where we are going or how things will turn out, it is trusting the God who does.
This is why Moses, so terrified in Exodus 4 at the burning bush, was able to calmly rally the Israelites standing in between an advancing army and the Red Sea. It was not because Moses suddenly had no FEAR but because HIS GOD was much larger than the "what ifs" of life.
Instead of asking if we are there yet, perhaps we should just sit back and enjoy the ride and kick FEAR to the curb.
