We worship every week in order to hear old words like the one John wrote to the church 2,000 years ago: “There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear!”
I believe that with all of my heart but I still have to wrestle with fear. There is so much to be afraid of in the world. Maybe you experience the same thing. We want faith and the courage to live with love but sometimes our fear is too great.
Most of us, maybe all of us, face fear sooner or later. Fear can cripple faith. It can create doubt. That doesn’t sound good but sometimes the doubt can help us. Philip Yancey writes, “When I wish to explore how faith works, I usually sneak in by the back door of doubt, for I best learn about my own need for faith during its absence.”
Yancey, in his book Reaching for the Invisible God, tells about a congregation in Chicago that is a delightful mixture of races, income levels and backgrounds. There was a crisis going on in the city and the church members wanted to do something so they organized a prayer vigil.
The church’s leaders were worried about the vigil. Would it be safe? Should they hire guards? Would anyone sign up?
The poorest members of the congregation, a group of senior citizens from one of the projects, were the most enthusiastic. They had seen all sorts of terrible things in the projects over the years yet they had a child-like trust in prayer. They were ready to get on their knees. Someone asked them, “How long do you want to stay, an hour? Two?” They replied, “Oh, we’ll stay all night.”
A woman in her 90s explained to one of the ministers why they were willing to spend the night in prayer in a church in a dangerous neighborhood. She said, “You see, they’s lots of things we can’t do in this church. We ain’t so educated, and we ain’t got as much energy as some of you younger folks. But we can pray. We got time, and we got faith. Some of us don’t sleep much anyway. We can pray all night if needs be.”
And so they did.
Sometimes all we need to do is simply show up, even in the face of doubt and fear, and allow the faith we have to lead us forward to love.
Grace and peace to you,
