Monday, November 21, 2011

Can Faith be Fearful?

  My youngest brother, Jeb, loves oats in milk with sugar sprinkled on top. Nearly every time he gets hungry he asks me, "can you-can yo... Awex, can you pweez get me some oats, and miwk, and sugar, and a bowl, and a spoon." He's just a little over three and doesn't say much at all, but when he's got a craving he doesn't have any difficulty telling me what it is, no matter how many times I tell him no. 
  Jesus told his disciples to become like little children. It's clear that to "become" is to come "from" some state or another. So what state are we coming from? Do you remember what the disciples were talking about before Jesus said this? They were discussing who would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They were debating over status, something that was very prominent in that time. So why did Jesus tell them to become like little children?
  In general BC culture children lived under the "seen but not heard" rule with rigid restriction. And yet when jesus came around, they sang openly in the temple and followed close by him without fear of what was culturally prudent. Jesus was telling his disciples to be like that. To love him so deeply that they would never fear or compromise for the sake of their socio economic category.
  I once read that "Christian humility is not meekly admitting we are nothing, it is submitting to gods will and doing everything he tells us to." Put a four year old alone in a dark room and he cries because it's dark. Put a four year old in a dark room with his daddy and he giggles because it's dark. Children trust and have little reservation about being protected but somewhere between toddler and adult we pick up this notion called "status".
  Now let me just say that status is by no means evil, but the fear of status is a very VERY bad thing! What is fear? Fear is saying that you don't trust god with your all. That you think you know better than he does. Essentially fear says that God is not god. Fear of anything but god is the death of faith. If you believe in god, then no one is too cool to be an example to and you're never too old, young, or educated to learn.
  In faith there is no fear. In faith there is no pride. In faith we ask god for our daily bread(oats and milk) and know that he will always do what is best.
~Alex G.