Fear.  Earlier this week I proposed the question, “Is there a difference between living in fear and living with Caution?” And honestly, to my surprise, there was a lot of feedback, which prompted me to go a little further with that thought.  You see, I’ve always felt that I have lived a pretty fearless life. I’m always the first to jump off something tall. I’m never afraid to try something new and the way I do nearly everything in my life from sports to general day to day could easily be described as fearless, from the outside looking in.  To take my fearlessness a little farther, I don’t get flu shots and never respond when I get sick, call it pride, confidence, or stupidity but I just have this idea that even if I get sick, it won’t kill me, I’ll be fine.  Now, let me address the elephant in the room, “Hello Corona”.  

This feels incredibly different, and honestly if my wife wasn’t at the front lines of this crap, and I didn’t have 2 kids that are vulnerable to this, I would probably be one of the inconsiderate/ignorant people out there complaining about everyone being fearful and over the top in their prevention and protection (this is definitely a me centered response).  BUT, I get the rare and fortunate/unfortunate chance to see/hear all the behind the scenes (as far as HIPPA will allow, hah), and I get to see and hear stories of amazing men and women who are putting on their white coats, scrubs or badges to go fight a battle that no one can see or ever have anticipated, we weren’t prepared for this, but in our defense, how could we have been?  

These Doctors, Physician Assistants, Nurses, and so on, didn’t go to school to learn how to fight a medical war, but here they are, fighting. They may be terrified, but you would never know it. They have kids, but you won’t hear theymcomplain while they treat the sickest of the sick.  They will freaking gurd up, push their hair back, and go to freaking work.  Not only are they figuring out how to handle and fight Corona, but at the same time they are sewing up kids who fell off their bike, they are taking care of people in car wrecks, dealing with reckless spring break college students and then in addition are taking care of people in deep dark depressions who don’t believe they deserve to be here anymore. They will counsel, and they will heal. They will do whatever they have to do, to protect and save the stranger sitting right in front of them.  YOU see, just like so many of us, their job doesn’t stop because of Corona, it just gets harder and more high risk.  These incredible men and women will be and ARE the difference.  If you can’t tell, I’m crazy proud of my wife and the team she gets to serve with.

All of that to say, yea, I’m fearful and maybe you are too, but my fear will not cripple me and I will look to God and the men and women fighting this thing as an inspiration.  I will follow their lead, if they tell me to stay home, I will.  If they tell me to wash my hands, I will.  It’s out sheer respect or maybe fear, that I will follow them.  One of the greatest traits of having great wisdom is to trust the wisdom of the ones who know more than we do.  I’m not saying I have great wisdom, but I want to, so I’ll trust the wise. 

Maybe all this gives us the perfect example of how to handle fear, what does fearing God look like, but not fearing anything else.   To end, here is how John Piper describes fearing God, and I think it’s perfect -Don’t Run from Fear

Don’t Run from Fear – Now here are two pictures… I went to visit a man named Dick Teegan, with Karsten when he was six. He had a dog at the door when we opened the door, and he looked Karsten eyeball to eyeball. This is a giant dog. And I sent Karsten back to the car to grab something that we had forgotten, and the dog went loping up behind the six-year-old at his very height with a little low growl, and Karsten was terrified. And Dick leaned out the door and shouted to Karsten, my six-year-old, “Karsten, maybe you better not run. He doesn’t like it when people run away from him.”

And I thought, “That is going in the sermon this Sunday.” Just walk beside him. You can even put your hand around his neck, you know? God is horrifically dangerous to run away from, and we should be terrified to run away from God, but if we will stay with him, his growl is a growl of our protection, not our destruction. And we can put our arm around his big neck, I guess, to change the imagery.

I love y’all, and take some time to tell a medical professional you love them and are thankful for them today.