Everything Is Never EnoughSample

THE FEAR THAT SETS YOU FREE

What do you fear? Failure? Missing out? Rejection?

Fear and control sit on opposite ends of a seesaw. As L. S. Dugdale puts it, “All of us fear what we cannot control and aim to control what we fear.” The fear of God is a significant exception to this rule. We do fear God because we cannot control him. Yet to fear God is to give up the need to be in control because you trust and submit to one who really is in control. The fear of God drives out fear of everything and everyone else.

To fear God is to give up not only the need to master all threats but also the drive to know all answers. To fear God is to trust that it is better to have him without answers than to have answers without him.

Qohelet surveyed all and judged it all absurd: We can nei­ther understand nor control the world. But the creator of all, by defini­tion, both understands and controls all. The verdict of absurdity teaches us that the world is not all we wish it were and that we are not all we think we are. Only God sees the whole tapestry be­cause, ultimately, he is the one weaving it. Only he understands the whole story because, ultimately, he is the one telling it. What should you do in the face of such a God? Revere him, respect him, worship him, and trust him. Fear him. Fearing God is not an alternative to life’s absurdity but a necessary re­sponse to life’s absurdity.

Qohelet focuses on the fear of God when he wrestles with the disconnect between morality and prosperity: “Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked…because he does not fear before God” (Ecclesiastes 8:12-13). The fear of God is a distinguishing mark of life lived rightly.

Work, knowledge, pleasure, wealth, power—each becomes a vapor. What is left is a single solid: “Fear God and keep his commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

God, in a world that is out of control, teach me to fear you with awe, worship, and trust. Drive out my fear of the unknown and replace it with a peace that comes from surrendering to you. Amen.