7/18/2010 - Living Beyond Our Fears

“LIVING BEYOND OUR FEARS”

Rev. James Singleton

7/18/10
Matthew 16:21-26

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

This may sound like a heavy passage of Scripture to try to absorb in the midst of a lazy, hazy summer morning. We are more in the mood for deck sitting and ice tea sipping than we are for picking up a cross. That belongs more in the winter time, during Lent, when the skies are gloomy and we are feeling spiritually heavy. But here in the summertime, we like to keep things light and upbeat. I don’t even like reading heavy duty books in the summer time, but rather I enjoy reading adventures.  

In fact, it was while I was reading a book on adventure that our passage of Scripture opened up for me and challenged me to get out of my deck chair and go find my life. The book I have been reading is called “Stranger in the Forest” by Eric Hansen.

Eric Hansen has not led your typical, settled, boring life. He has lived in deserts, jungles, and islands of the Middle East and Asia. He has been shipwrecked, stranded and survived cyclones and plane crashes. But he walked into his greatest challenge and adventure when he walked into the rain forest of Borneo, the world’s third largest island, and still one of the few places largely untouched by Western civilization.

Carrying only a bed sheet, a change of clothes and a basket of barter goods, he hiked for seven months under a canopy of leaves so thick he couldn’t see the sky. He hunted wild pig, met tribes whose houses were still decorated with headhunting swords, confronted customs and places he didn’t understand, and encountered a small band of jungle dwellers few western men have ever seen.

For 1500 miles he struggled against, escaped, encountered and confronted the Borneo rain forests—a feat none had ever dared before. And when he reached the other side after seven months, he turned around and went back. He went back, he said, because he wanted to find out what his limits were.

Others had tried what he accomplished, but none ever dared it alone. None ever had allowed themselves to be as vulnerable as he had. In 1824, poor George Muller set out to explore and cross the island, but first surrounded himself with body guards and porters and soldiers. Muller wanted to explore the island, but he also wanted to insure his safety and well-being. He accomplished neither. Despite his precautions, he and his band were attacked by the natives and killed.

Eric Hansen, alone and completely vulnerable, came to live and sing and dance with those same natives who were still just as dangerous as their ancestors. At the end of his book, he reflects upon his quest, and tells the secret he learned from it. He says that he believes the secret to life and getting the best out of life is learning “to allow yourself to be vulnerable and feeling comfortable with that vulnerability.”

Remember what Jesus said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” In other words, life, according to Jesus, is found in being vulnerable, in taking risks that God calls upon you to take, and feeling comfortable with the fact that your life is not always safe, protected and comfortable.  

To find our life we have to be willing to poke our head out of our protective shell now and then and do what we may feel afraid to do, but do it because we believe God is calling us to do it.

Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable is not always our strongest suit. We tend to be more like George Muller. We want to experience life, but we want to insure first that we will be safe and secure, so we surround ourselves with cautions and protections and safety nets, all of which, in the end, keep us from taking any great risks.   

I suppose the reason why we don’t like taking risks; being vulnerable; opening up and coming out of our shell is the fear of failing and being hurt. No one likes to fail. No one likes to stick their neck out and have it chopped off.

And yet, the irony of it is that despite our precautions and all our safety nets and bubble wrap and defenses and excuses that we surround ourselves with, like George Muller and his entourage, life can still explode in our face and we can still lose everything.

There is such a thing as playing it so safe that you lose your life.

It sounded crazy to Peter for Jesus to go to Jerusalem. Didn’t he know what awaited him there? Yes, he knew. But Saviors are not supposed to be vulnerable. He should go where he is well liked; go where he will be accepted and secure. But for God’s sake, don’t go to Jerusalem. But Jesus said that it was precisely for God’s sake that he must go to Jerusalem.  

To stand for anything worthwhile means having the courage to go where you have to go and do what you have to do—regardless of the danger or challenge it presents. To do otherwise, to save his life and hide from danger; to cower in the face of challenge would be to lose his soul. It would be from the cross that Jesus would find his life—not from the security of his father’s carpentry shop.

Failing is not the worst thing in life—the worst thing in life is fearing. Maybe that is why the Bible has over 365 verses that contain the words: “Fear not.” That’s a “Fear not” for every day of the year. Not doing what you know you should do, what God wants you to do, what you feel in your gut you need to do is to lose who you are and what you can become.

John Ortberg wrote a book entitled If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve God to Get Out of the Boat. It is based upon one of my favorite passages of Scripture where the disciples are in a boat caught in the middle of a storm and Jesus comes to them walking through the storm on the water. Peter cries out to him, “Lord, I want to walk on the water, too.” And Jesus challenges him to get out of the boat and walk on the water in the midst of the storm. How many of you would have stepped out of that boat? Ortberg writes the following:

“Failure does not shape you. The way you respond to failure shapes you. Jesus is looking for people who will get out of the boat. Why risk? I believe there are many reasons. It’s the only way to real growth. It’s the only way for true faith to develop. It is the alternative to boredom and stagnation that causes people to wither up and die.

“It is a part of discovering how to obey your calling. I believe there are many good reasons to get out of the boat, but there is one that trumps them all: The water is where Jesus is at. The water may be dark and wet and dangerous, but Jesus is not in the boat…

 “The call to get out of the boat involves crisis, opportunity, often failure, generally fear, sometimes suffering, always the calling to a task too big for us, but there is no other way to grow in faith than to partner with God.”

I don’t know what all of his means for you. You will have to figure that out on your own. I struggle to know what it means for me. But here are some hints:

Faith is trusting in an invisible God and believing that God still has plans for your life even when all of your visible plans have blown up in your face and so you refuse to quit. 

Faith is taking the risk to let go of the sure thing in order to reach for the promised thing because you believe that God is calling you to something better and greater than where you are.

Faith is willing to be vulnerable because you believe you are in the end protected by the God who will lift you up each time you fall.

Faith is letting go of your kids and allowing them to venture forth into the chaos of life trusting that they will find themselves out there, without you always protecting them, because out there on the water is where they will find God.

Faith is risking love in the face of rejection because love is what life is about and if we always guard our heart and keep it from getting broken, we will never come to understand why God created us or died for us.

Faith is using your God given talents to do what you are scared to death to do because you believe God gave you those talents for a reason and regardless of how difficult it may be God will uphold you and use you as His instrument. 

The secret of life is learning to allow yourself to be vulnerable and feeling comfortable with that vulnerability. We can only feel comfortable with vulnerability so long as we believe in a God who takes risks and is vulnerable himself, because that is where life is to be found. You cannot follow Jesus and play it safe at the same time. That is a contradiction. Jesus left no monument to stop at and commemorate the past. He left only footprints that lead us into an unknown and adventurous future.

The irony of life is that we can become so cautious and protective and isolated that we actually lose our life. But those who are willing to step out in faith and to trust the God who calls upon them to live beyond their fears—they may risk losing their comfortable life, but in the end they are the ones who will find themselves.

The question that remains is this: What does being vulnerable and losing your life for Jesus’ sake mean for you?

AMEN.