The Antidote To Fear

The Antidote to Fear

I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

“The American church is filled with fear; stop being so afraid.”

My husband and I were at a luncheon for ministry leaders, and the pastor who was speaking had spent almost forty years in various African refugee camps—and his words held a truth I could not deny.

As I listened to him talk, I remembered feeling fearful when Aaron and I had recently attended a large Somali soccer tournament. I was one of the only women in attendance and was the only white woman. My fear was soon replaced with shame when I received kind, honoring treatment from the men in attendance—both from strangers and the young men we were there to cheer on. As we left, having had a lovely time with the young men Aaron has connected with over their mutual adoration of soccer, I pondered whether a Somali woman would have been similarly treated had she walked into a baseball tournament in my community.

In a community roiled by increasing cultural, religious, and racial tension, my family has befriended several young Somali men. My living room is often filled on Saturday mornings with teenagers who devour pancakes and egg bakes, who bring me the ingredients for Somali tea, who are polite and kind and hilarious and who love watching soccer as much as my husband does.

“Oh, Lord, forgive me my fear; forgive us our fear,” I breathed as my mind returned and tuned in to the conversation going on around me at that small Saturday luncheon for leaders and a few tagalongs (my husband and I being among the tagalongs).

Fear cannot exist in the midst of friendship. When you draw near to someone, the what-ifs and unknowns have no room to fester and flourish. We are not called to fear. In fact, when we choose fear, we reject the gift Jesus gave us—the gift of peace of mind and heart. Fear paralyzes us, stopping us from being fully functioning children of God. The wonderful thing is that we get to choose, daily, whether we will accept or reject his gift of peace.

— Julie

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Consider whether you’ve allowed fear to prevent you from pursuing friendships with people whose cultural background differs from yours in some way. Choose to accept Jesus’ gift of peace instead.