One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” There was much going on in their lives and his, too. For all we know, Jesus may have been saying those words to them just so he could hear them out loud himself. They were living in troubling times. The Roman occupation was getting tougher and tougher. The local religious leaders were growing tired of Jesus and his teaching. Everything was changing. A feeling of fear seemed to be waiting at every corner.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said and then he told his followers, “Believe in God.” We modern-day Christians see that word “believe” and we tend to think it is referring to a list of theological tenets that we are required to accept. Before you know it, we are arguing about whether the Virgin Birth was literally true or we get caught up in worthless arguments about who gets into heaven and who gets left behind.
When Jesus used the word, though, he meant something more like trust. It is like he was saying, “Trust in the ways of God. Learn to live your life as though the only thing that matters in this world is how you love and receive love.”
Learning to trust means that we must learn to let go of our fears. This is never easy. Richard Rohr has become one of my favorite theologians. In his book, Everything Belongs, he helps us with this idea,
“The fears that assault us are mostly simple anxieties about social skills, about intimacy, about likeableness, or about performance. We need not give emotional food or charge to these fears or become attached to them. We don’t even have to shame ourselves for having these fears. Simply ask your fears, ‘What are you trying to teach me?’ Some say that FEAR is merely an acronym for ‘False Evidence Appearing Real.’ ”
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God…”
Grace and peace to you,
-Glen
