timism of the day: Jesus did a Clint Eastwood
I love this story about a businessman who was traveling and landed at an airport who caught a taxi to take him to a hotel. It was late at night, he was tired and it was dark. He gave the taxi driver the instructions and sat in the back and closed his eyes. Neither of the two spoke for 15 or 20 minutes, but after several minutes the businessman remembered a question that he had so he tapped the taxi driver on the shoulder, nearly scaring the taxi driver off the road…and he swerved to the right and he swerved to the left and finally he got the car under control and pulled over to the side of the road. Then he turned over his shoulder and looked at the businessman and said, “I’m sorry for that reaction, but you need to know that today is my first day as a taxi driver, for the last 25 years I’ve been driving a Hurst”.
Well he’s not the first, nor the last to have a moment of fear.
In the bible (Mark: 4:35-41), there’s a story of the storm in which the disciples of Jesus find themselves on the Sea of Galilee, a famous lake, which still exists today and is known to quickly churn up storms that reach waves of up to 10 feet tall or more. Can you imagine if you were one of the Disciples of Christ in what was typically in that time frame a 30 foot long wooden fishing boat? Up 10 feet…down 10 feet…up 10 feet…down 10 feet, over and over again, makes me kind of nauseous just thinking about it. They were afraid for their lives, so what did they do? Probably what any of the rest of us would do, they panicked and turned to Jesus for help. Does anybody here know what Jesus was doing? Snoring! He was sound asleep.
The thunder roared and Jesus snored. Seems that way in our lives sometimes, doesn’t it? Things get bad, unpredictable, rug gets pulled out from under us, drama and trauma happens and problems begin to inflame us, undo us, burden us, scare us, entrap us, and steal our peace, our sleep etc…etc…etc…The thunder roars and yet Jesus seems to snore!?! As if He doesn’t notice, or care, or perhaps we get the notion that He’s not even there.
The disciples were troubled by the fact that Jesus was sleeping through this terrible ordeal, so they woke Him up and asked Him. “Teacher don’t you care that we’re about to perish?” And when he got his wits about him he woke up and looked at them and said, “Now, why are you afraid”? After He asked the question He then spoke to the wind and spoke to the waves and everything became still and the disciples looked at Him and said; “What kind of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him”? It’s interesting how Jesus was so cool. He didn’t put on a show, or make a big hubbub about it. He did a “Clint Eastwood” and spoke, NOT YELLED…spoke to the wind and the waves and all became still. We love that story because it’s a story of fear and everyone here can relate to fear. And boy isn’t there plenty of things to be afraid of today.
· Right now in our world 1 billion people are hungry.
· 2 Billion People are desperately poor.
· In the U.S. alone there’s 32,000 suicides per year with suicide being the 4th leading cause of death in 18-65 yr. olds and 1,500 suicides per day.
· Males are four times more likely to succeed, but females try suicide two times more often.
· Yet, this is supposed to be the wealthiest country in the world. Everybody is jumping our borders, yet there’s more suicides here that any other country in the world.
· They’re talking layoffs at work.
· Slowdowns in the economy.
· At this moment, the National Debt is 8 Trillion and climbing 38 Billion dollars a day. · There’s deployment to Afghanistan.
· Dictators collect nuclear warheads like others collect fine wines.
And the plague of our day “Terrorism” begins with the word TERROR. After 911 there has been a 40% increase in fear based disorders such as panic attacks, anxiety attacks, OCD, PTSD and GAD. GAD, or Generalized Anxiety Disorder feels like when you lean back in a chair and lose your balance for a second, except with GAD, you feel like that for lengthy periods of time. Can you imagine? Think of the toll that takes on your energy, your body, your sleep, your thinking and eventually your immune system and sanity.
WE ARE AFRAID!
· Afraid of going broke.
· Of being left alone (One of the biggest fears of all is to die alone).
· Of finishing last.
· Of failure.
· Of success.
· The mole on the neck.
· The tick of the clock as it takes us closer and closer to the grave.
And Consequently:
We take more mood altering drugs than any generation in history, but it doesn’t seem to help. Research tells us the children today have the same level of fear that psychiatric patients had in the 1950’s. Thus we have children at 7 & 8 years of age with ulcers due to stress. I recall a scene from a movie I watched recently were a 13 year old girl who had attempted suicide was talking to a psychiatrist who was asking the girl, “What could you possibly be so upset about that would give you reason to attempt suicide. You’re just a little girl, you haven’t even lived yet. You’ve never had a job, a boyfriend, a mortgage, your parents are loving and supportive, you seem well liked in school, you get excellent grades…I don’t understand. Nothing traumatic has happened in your life. Why?" The girl looked at him with a knowing look and stated, “Obviously you’ve never been a 13 year old girl before.”
You know, the average age in America these days for a child to become sexually active and get involved with drugs and alcohol is 13 years old. And these statistics are conservative because people don’t willingly divulge this kind of information honestly. We attempt suicide more than any other time in history and more than any other country. There are more drug and alcohol problems now than in the history of mankind. Approximately 90% of police time is drug or alcohol related. It appears that fear has moved into the neighborhood and taken up shop wouldn’t you say?
Yet for all the noise that fear makes and all the space that fear takes, do you think that it does any good? Fear never wrote a symphony, never wrote a poem, and never led a nation out of bigotry or people out of poverty. Fear never built a church, BUT COURAGE DID, FAITH DID, JESUS DID!!!
What does fear do? It takes us into a prison and locks the door. Wouldn’t it be great to walk out? Can you imagine your life with no fear? Just one day…24 hours void of the dread and the anxieties of life? What if I had a magic wand that I could wave over your head and extract every last shaving of fear and dread? Would you like that? What do you think it would do for you? How would it change your life? Would you be a better parent, a better spouse, a better neighbor, a better friend? Would you laugh more? Would you try new things? Would you live more adventurously? Would you talk more, express yourself more? Share your feelings more? Sleep better? Would your quality of life vastly improve? Ya, probably. So would mine.
That’s why we love this question when Jesus said to his disciples in Mark 4:40, “Now why are you so afraid?” because there’s a promise within this question and that is, you don’t have to be afraid. It’s a choice. This is what I mean when I say sometimes questions make the best answers. Jesus didn’t say, “How dare you be afraid?” Or, “May the curse of the heavens come down upon you for the sin of fear!” No, he asked, why? The promise in this question is that we don’t have to be afraid. Yes, you can choose today, this moment, which is all you really have control of to be less afraid. Fear less today, less tomorrow and less this year and so on…
Matthew and Mark both recorded this story in the gospel, but there are some unique differences in their emphasis. Matthew used the Greek work “sizemose” which is the ancestor of the words we use today to describe the study of earthquakes…seismology, seismologist. Matthew evidently wanted us to know the size of these waves. That we’re not sissy’s, there was indeed something to be afraid of. How many of you know that there ALWAYS is indeed something to be afraid of. If you look hard enough there’s always a “What if” this happens or “What if that happens”?
Matthew wanted us to know that here we are in this 30 ft wooden boat with 10 ft waves going up and down and up and down and fearing for our lives, thinking surely we shall perish. We’re gonna die and there’s Jesus over there snoring! Mark on the other hand wanted to emphasis two curious details, (1) letting us know that this was no accident. And (2) Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat, the safest part of the boat where they kept nets etc… perhaps the only safe place in the boat, and with his head on a pillow. (Probably a 30 pound sand filled leather bag used to ballast the boat). This tells us that this was no accidental sleep, but a premeditated slumber.
Mark 4:38 “And the disciples said, Teacher don’t you care if we drown?” Teacher don’t you care? Teacher don’t you care? Why do you suppose they asked this question? Why not, “Teacher can you help us?” Or, “Teacher, can’t you see we’re about to perish?” Or, “Teacher, do you have any experience with wind and waves and boats?” But no, they asked, “Teacher don’t you care?”
You see what fear does? It can cause us to doubt God, to think He doesn’t care, to question the goodness in heaven, to question our power in Him, to question if He hears us, to question, “Are you there God?” Fear can also cause us to be a bit demanding. “Teacher don’t you care?” It’s not a very respectful question, is it? It’s got an edge to it, a bossiness to it, an accusatory tone to it. It really says, “Teacher Fix It!”
Fear can often lead us to believe that:
· Our world is out of control.
· Our governments out of control.
· Spending is out of control.
· People are out of control.
· Marriage is out of control.
· Health is out of control.
Thus, wee cautastraphize and awfulize and generalize, and often turn it into something that it’s not. When we think something’s out of control, what do we tend to do? CONTROL IT!!! Has anyone here found themselves a bit controlling when responding to some fear? Anyone here live with anyone that tends to be controlling? Many, if not most anger management/domestic violence problems are based out of fear.
Anger as often a coping emotion, we throw it in front of fear, as we would rather the world see anger than fear, as fear is often believed to be a weakness. Then we perhaps believe that if we are angry, we have to be aggressive. Anger is a normal emotion stemming from a belief that we are being violated. Aggression is a choice to hurt somebody. They have nothing in common, but are often guilty by association.
Respect and Intimidation are also often confused with fear. To gain respect we feel we have to make someone fear us or be intimidated by us, making it guilty by association as well. Another thing about fear is that fear just feels dreadful. We don’t like it. I don’t like it, do you? I can’t think of any emotion that feels worse!
Fear is one of your eight core emotions. It arrives when we feel that we are in danger. I don’t ever wake up and say to myself, “Boy, today I’m just going to be full of fear. I’m so excited!" Nor do I circle a day on my calendar and say, “I’m going to worry my way through that whole day.” I doubt anyone ever said, “You know, every since I became a hypochondriac, I became the happiest person in the world”.
Fear robs us of our:
· Joy
· Peace
· Happiness
Fear rules our thinking into believing things like, God doesn’t care. Fear makes us, bossy, worry, aggressive, and turns us into control freaks. Thus we try to control it and avoid it with drugs, alcohol, aggressive behavior, distrust, and controlling behavior.
Fear can also make us passive – giving up our voice and our power. It can convince us that we are victims as opposed to victimized. We’ve all been taken advantage of, but to become a victim is a choice. Wherever an aggressive person is, you will find in the near vicinity someone who has allowed themselves to be a victim.
A passive person is an aggressive person lying in wait. To choose to be passive is to choose, no voice, no power, no authority, to be an underachiever, to believe you are not important, not worthy, and to never really get what you want or need in life. What kind of life is that? It goes against everything that we are meant to be and if chosen, soon resentment will build and you may turn into exactly what you hate.
Did you know that Jesus talked more about fear than any other topic? Of the 120 commands of Jesus 20 of them had to do with FEAR. God does not want us to live in fear. But, don’t get me wrong. Fear does have its place. In fact fear is a gift of God. There’s a book that you might want to read called, “The Gift of Fear”, by Gavin De Becker. It warns us of potential danger. It tells us to run out of burning buildings. Have you ever intuitively felt the hair stand up on the back of your neck –LISTEN! That’s the good kind of fear…your intuitive ear. Interestingly fear is a precursor to Faith and Courage and ultimately, vision. Without fear we would probably all be dead.
We even like fear in small controlled increments such as roller coasters, horror flicks, thriller movies, spook houses, extreme sports, scary novels etc… It is not the presence of fear that is the problem so much as it is our preoccupation with fear, our obsession with fear. Fear will always knock at your door. So when you open the door and see that it is fear, then you have a choice. Is it healthy fear, or unhealthy fear? Is this real or imagined? If it’s real and there is something you can do about it -- LISTEN! If you’ve done all you can then fear will lead to faith and courage.
Romans 10:17 Says, “Faith cometh by hearing.” Thus your need to be here today, to have read this far. You have now heard.
I Corinthians 16:13 Say’s “Be alert and be firm in your faith. Keep on being strong and courageous.”So I urge you: Look back at 2009 and leave behind your irrational Fear! What do we want to keep in, in 2010? To be of good courage! Good courage is smart courage. So that, like Jesus, when he spoke to the wind and the waves, the disciples said, “What kind of man is this?”
Be of Good Courage my facebook friends and people will look at you and say…”What kind of Man is this?” “What kind of Woman is this?” This will have a ripple effect on all around you. Live a life that will make people look in amazement and wonder, “What kind of man/woman is this? This can very well be your most powerful testimony, just your lifestyle, your ability to do a "Clint Eastwood" in the face of fear. You don’t really have to say a word. People will look and wonder in amazement at your faith and courage and if they want to know, and they will, they will ask. That’s when you can tell them where it all comes from. God.
Just sayin. Take it. Test it. Teach it. tim
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timism of the day: Jesus did a Clint Eastwood
