A Healthier View of Fear (Luke 8:22-25) - Podcast Episode 25

Welcome to the Sunday sit down. We have a name and we're

introducing it on a week when Pastor Grant is away, so he is

aware of it though. So just come up with it.

On our own, that's right. And my name is Justin Sitzman,

one of the pastors at Courtright.

And with me today, I have Abby Buckle say hi, Abby.

Hi, Abby. Wait a minute.

Abby is many things. She's a wonderful human being.

But also currently our food covered coordinator over the

summer months. Abby is a seminarian currently.

Is that OK? OK, talk about that.

Yeah, and what else? What else should people know

about you, Abby? I also and kind of a sign

scientist, he person, I've got a little dual interest happening.

Yeah, Yep. And love that.

Yeah, and so excited to have Abby helping us out this morning

as we talk about this past week's sermon, which Pastor

Grant preached. And I am just getting in.

I just got in from Scotland. I was away for about a week and

a half and enjoying some time with my family and another some

other friends of ours. And and so I had to run out to

the grocery store because we had no food in our cupboard this

morning and I had to get some lunch for our my child who is

getting off to a a day camp today and had a chance to listen

to both of the past past couple weeks sermons.

Did you listen to them on two times speed?

I did not, you know, I listen. I thought I was going to, but

then I didn't. And part of it was.

I know. Yeah.

So. That's a long grocery shop.

Well, OK, no, I listened to one while I was getting ready

because they were both 40 minutes, which Grant rarely does

40 minutes but apparently does it while I'm away.

So 1 was a grocery shop, 1 while I was getting ready.

So yeah. And so last last Sunday we were

talking we the passage was the story of if I could find it

here, Jesus calming the winds and the waves calming the storm.

This is from Luke chapter 8, verses 22 through to 20/25/25.

Luke 8:22

Thank you. I was lost for a second there.

And so do you have it pulled up there, Abby, or do you want to,

do you want to go ahead and read it for us?

Luke 822 to 25. One.

Uh oh. What?

What's? Going on, I clicked off of it.

One day Jesus said to his disciples, let us go over to the

other side of the lake. So they got into a boat and set

out. As they sailed, he fell asleep.

A squaw came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped

and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him

up, saying, Master, master, we're going to drown.

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters.

The storm subsided and all was calm.

Where is your faith? He asked his disciples in fear

and amazement. They asked.

They asked one another, Who is this?

He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him.

Hmm, there's like so much in this passage and we want to try

it today to not just like duplicate things that Grant

talked about, but to go in a different direction.

And, and so we, we thought through a few different things.

We thought through some, some areas to go a little deeper into

and there's lots of amazing themes here.

There's sort of like this, this approach, this approach to Jesus

that different, different parts of Christianity will take.

And I think there's something to explore there.

We're going to talk a little bit about this idea of, of the

opposite of faith not being doubt, but fear.

And then like kind of how are you redirecting that?

How are you redirecting? And, and even just Steven, you

know, as Jesus asked this question, where is your faith,

you know, noticing how he asks that question and, and what is

in and, and what is his approach toward his disciples?

Is he chastising them? How do we, how do we internalize

that question, right. And then, and then also just

real practically, you know, when we are in a situation like this,

hopefully not a literal storm, but This is why it becomes this

metaphor that gets used often in our even in our worship songs

and in hymns, in our language. We talked, we talk often the

storms of life, you know, how do we approach Jesus and how do we

approach ourselves in those moments?

And, and what are some things we can do?

I mean, there are friends in our church community who are

experiencing some very real life storms right now.

And, and so this is not theoretical.

This is, this is real life, right?

And so just being able to go into this a little bit and, and,

and explore just who Jesus is in this passage.

So why don't we start there and, and, and I'll just kind of set

the table and then open it up for, for discussion.

So we talked, Grant talked a little bit in the sermon about

this being a very different Jesus than we sometimes paint

that Jesus. I mean #1 he's, he's having a

nap. And then when they wake him up

to deal with the storm, he gets up and he, he deals with it.

He literally rebukes. And, and we use that language.

That's that's the same language of, of exorcism of, of the way

that he would rebuke demon inside someone inside someone.

He is rebuking the winds and the waves and they subside.

Yeah. Like, that's some scary stuff.

Like if, if you were in the presence of someone who did

that, what other option would you have other than to be

slightly afraid of that kind of power, Right.

And and so there is that there's a tension there.

There's a tension there that I want to jump into a little bit

of. You know, you have Jesus who the

the same Jesus who in other parts of the Gospels, you know,

talks about, you know, one of Jesus's most famous quotes is

come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden.

And I will, I will give you rest.

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

And so we have this, this Jesus who provides and brings comfort,

and this Jesus who joins us in our suffering, and this Jesus

who goes before us. And then we also have Jesus who

is doing some downright like terrifying things like this,

right? And and so like, I wanna just

talk about that a little bit and how we approach Jesus in a

healthy way that avoids like bifurcation of like, you know,

he's he's this way, he's that way.

No, he's like, so I don't know. Any thoughts around that?

Yeah, I think something I noticed, like reading through

this this morning, was the order that Jesus did things in.

It's like the disciples wake him up and they're freaking out

because there's a massive storm and they were in great danger.

Like it literally like it wasn't like they were overreacting to

some little storm on the lake, like they were in danger.

So they wake him up and before he asks them the question, where

is your faith? Like before he addresses them at

all. He gets up and calms the storm.

And I think sometimes we get that backwards.

Like when people are in the middle of a storm, you know, we

throw at them, well, where is your faith?

Like have more faith? And I think Jesus is really

representing like acknowledging that when we're in the middle of

it, we don't have capacity to be reevaluating the order of our

faith and where we have put our faith, like appropriately or

not. And there is a lot of compassion

in that. Hmm, that Jesus is saying like,

OK, things need to be calm so that you have space to think

about this question I'm going to ask you.

That's really important because I think the other thing about

rebuking being this like, putting evil in its rightful

place. Yeah.

Is that that's like scary when you're, you know, watching Jesus

just bring a storm to total stillness, but also recognizing

that like there are things in us that Jesus can address and

hopefully is addressing, but Jesus isn't weaponizing that.

He's not saying, well, you guys didn't put your faith in me.

You know, I was over here napping, so thanks for waking me

up. Like he, yeah, doesn't extend

that rebuke to them. He rebukes the storm to like,

show them that he's worth trusting.

I love that. And it's almost like it's almost

like, hey guys, let's, let's regroup here.

Let's let's, let's have a chat. You know, let's, let's talk

about what happened here, like where what happened to faith in

that moment? Like it's, it's, it's this and

it will, and it kind of encompasses this idea of Jesus

as, as one who is, is worthy of us being, you know, in awe and

wonder and fear over. And also he is our, he is our,

our teacher and our shepherd and the one who, who we, we seek

wisdom and even comfort from in those moments where after the

fact, he's like, hey, that, that was wild guys.

Like what happened there, You know, and, and, and not in a,

you know, I think Grant said this like not in a chastising

way, but in, in a way that's like, let's talk about this.

Let's let's like share our our, you know what we encountered in

that moment? Yeah, yeah.

And I don't think Jesus was saying like, you shouldn't have

woken me up from my nap. Like if you had just let me

sleep, it all would have been fine.

But I think he probably is more addressing that the disciples

automatically jumped to the conclusion that they were going

to drown instead of, you know, realizing the person they have

in front of him, in front of them had the power to do

something about it and asking him to come into that.

And I'm like, I'm the first one to admit I jumped to

conclusions. I'm, like, leaping to every

conclusion accessible before Jesus.

And so I think, yeah, there's a regrouping of like, let's

reflect back on how we did this. Yeah, and see what we missed or

what we could do next time. Yeah, I we had a moment.

This was just this is very fresh because it was 2 days ago.

And so like I said, I was, I was in the UK and I was driving.

On the wrong side of the road, the wrong story on the other

side of the road. And I, you know, I was five days

into to this and I was like, I picked up pretty quick, right?

But when I, when I don't have my, my Apple maps showing me

where to go because I've lost signal and it's pouring rain and

the roads are very narrow and we, and we realize we are

driving up a mountain that's leading to a dead end.

This is, this is what was happening 2 days ago.

There was some panic in the car. There was, there was, there was

a little bit of panic in the car in the moments, um, and we, we

had to debriefing afterward, right?

Yeah, but not in the moment. And I think that's to, to your

point and to the point of, of what Jesus does here.

It's, it's not in the moment. Like I, I'm not gonna, you know,

my, my wife is not going to say to me and I'm not going to say

to her, where's your faith? Like, come on, we're going to be

fine. You know, like, like I now, and

I'm, I'm more the type who's, who's like, it'll be fine.

Like we'll figure it out. You know, like that's more, that

tends to be my approach. But like inwardly I'm, I'm

freaking out a little bit, right?

Like it, it is pouring rain. We have no cell signal.

We we'd have no like the the GPS is not telling us the right way.

Like it's, it was a mess. But then 5 minutes, 5 minutes

later, we're back on the path and and we're able to talk about

it, be like, Hey, you OK? Yeah.

Well, and fear keeps us safe. Like if you hadn't been afraid,

that's like a really good way to like hydroplane and like.

There was, there was a lot of hydroplaning happening.

But like, if you're freaking out, you're not going to, you

know, remember the like, turn the steering wheel where you

want to go. Don't overcorrect like it if the

disciples didn't just like just didn't do anything, like Jesus

isn't asking for passivity. Yeah, because then they would

have drowned. And there is like a it, you

know, we're supposed to freak out if there is a bear.

I'm going to the Yukon next week and my my roommate just came

back and they encountered a grizzly and her response was

stop, scream, run the other way and face plant.

Wait, isn't that the opposite of you're supposed to, yes.

Yes, yes, you're supposed to do is freeze, take out your bear

spray, stay very quiet and hope the grizzly bear goes the other

way. And thankfully when she

screamed, it was startled and ran the other way.

But there's a We are supposed to respond to threats because

otherwise that's just foolishness.

Yeah. And yet also it is like when we

are in those moments, sometimes our reactions are just like our,

our brain doing what it does because it wants to protect

itself. And it's, and then that's that's

where I, I am firmly in the camp of Jesus is not chastising them

because they were having a very natural response right now.

I guess one part of it that that they maybe should have

considered hopefully in the moment would have been that

like, Hey, I know that Jesus is sleeping, but like we, we've

seen what this guy can do. You know, we've seen some stuff

so far in, in Jesus ministry, like maybe maybe you know, he is

and maybe that's why they woke him maybe in the moment, like

maybe Jesus can do something about this, right.

We don't have that in the text here, obviously, but you kind of

wonder what's happening in their in their brain.

And there's like an accusatory tone in the way that they like,

Master, master, we're gonna drown.

It's still like, hey buddy, who could do something about it and

is taking a nap. Yeah.

Yeah, wake up. Little judgy.

And yeah, I mean, like I'm grateful for God's grace when I

come at him, accusing him of all the things I think he should

have intervened in earlier. But yeah, I think there is a

like, like not chastising, but just like a gentle reminder of

like I Jesus is a grip on what's going on.

Yeah, he he knows what's happening and yeah, he knows

when to like, appropriately use his power and so.

So, so let's talk a little bit more.

Let's lean into this, this theme of of faith.

So Jesus asked where is their faith?

And Grant touched on the idea that that the opposite of faith

is not doubt. And that, you know, is when

we're talking about faith and we're talking about fear, how,

how do we think about how do we think about that?

How do we think about there are ways in which you could

weaponize that in an unhealthy way that that I think I've seen

done in recent history where Christians, you know, have have

weaponized faith over fear. And yet I actually don't know

that faith and fear are, are like necessarily opposites.

No, I, I think that it is faith amid fear that they are

experiencing a very real thing that is happening to them as we

all have happened at various points in our life.

And they are afraid and, and there maybe their faith is, is

sinking or subsiding in that moment.

But it's, it's this interesting balance and I don't quite know,

you know, it's is a lifelong tension and challenge, but I

don't know, I don't have any thoughts around that.

Yeah, I think. I mean, I think for doubt, like

you can't like for faith and doubt to be like opposing things

like is complicated because I you can't just decide to stop

doubting. You can't white knuckle your

faith. You can't just like pretend that

if you grit your teeth hard enough, all of a sudden you'll

get this faith like but with like, I think you're right that

there's like this faith and fear that kind of come together

because you can be afraid or like fear in like the in fear

and amazement. The disciples like looked around

of this, like it's this awe of like the power and like a

respect of the authority that Jesus has that exists within

their faith. But it's like kind of the fear

that dictates how they choose to respond in faith.

Like I think if they weren't afraid or if they if they were

doubting, they might have been really wishy washy on do I wake

Jesus up? Do I like is it worth it?

Is he going to do anything? Maybe he can't do it.

Maybe. He can't do anything.

Yeah. And I mean, I would hope after

the amount of miracles the disciples had seen, they were

kind of past that. I mean, they're not, but that's

for later. But in their fear, they, like

rightly engage Jesus in it. Whether they do that

appropriately is they're still kind of grasping for control

over a situation. Hmm.

But it's like the yeah, how we choose to engage, that fear

dictates how our faith is going to be lived out and like

actionable. And that's hard because it we

don't get a choice not to react the way you would.

If there's doubt, you have to engage somehow, and that's

almost harder. Yeah, yeah.

The stakes are high. Hmm.

I, you know, when I, when I think about, when I think about

fear, and I've always wrestled, I've always wrestled with this

idea of, of, you know, when, when people talked, when, when

people talked growing up about, you know, you know, the fearing

God and things like that. And, and in this case, fearing

Jesus, you know, who's the son of God, I always, I bristled at

it because I know fear is bad. I bristled at it.

I was like, I'm not, you know, like it's, it's all in wonder.

It's, it's reverence, it's utmost respect and reverence,

all these things, but it's not fear.

And, and I as I, I'm learning to temper that a little bit as I,

as I hopefully mature sort of kind of.

And, and think through what, what does it look like for me to

look at Jesus, who is my Savior, who my salvation depends on who

is capable of, of this and so much more.

How do I, how do I approach Jesus in a, in a healthy way,

right? Because obviously there is

reverence there is, there is faith there is, you know, like

I, I, I used to have a, a hat cause this was like a saying

that was really cheesy back in the day.

I used to have a trucker hat that said Jesus is my homeboy.

Yeah. And it it, it was, it was

stupid. I'm kind of surprised by that.

I and, and like, looking back, I'm like, you know what?

I don't think that that showcases A reverence for who

Jesus is. But I was 17 and silly and and

so look at me saying repenting of 20 year old plus sins that I

do think there is a place where I'm like, man, I actually I need

to see Jesus in his rightful place here.

There is something so important about that.

And yet I don't, I don't want, I don't want to be overwhelmed by

that fear. Yeah, you know, like that, that

I, I think that there is a there is a healthy fear and there is

an unhealthy fear. I don't know.

Have you thought that through it all?

I, I'm just thinking about in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah has this

vision of or like sees the Lord in like the throne room and he's

just like, he's in fear. Like this is a fear response.

He's like looking at like it's talking about, you know, the

Seraphim and all of their wings and biblically accurate angels.

And then Isaiah's response is woe to me.

I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a

people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king, the

Lord Almighty. So he's having this realization

that God is powerful and holy and perfect, and he is

absolutely not. And it's really confronting and

he has this moment where one of the Seraphim takes a piece of

coal and touches it to his lips and it like says, your guilt is

taken away and your sin as a tone for So he has this like

encounter of all of that sin that he's like, I can't be in

front of God being taken away and him being allowed to to be

in that presence. And his response to that fear is

OK, God, I am here like do with me what you would want.

He actually even more so says here I am send me like I'm going

to go. And I think that that surrender

in our fear, not in a passive way, yeah, but in a very active,

like, I have no idea what to respond, like what to do.

I feel like I should run the other way which is a normal fear

response and instead choosing to like have open hands and say OK

God like move me where you want me to go or I'm going to follow

your lead and see how you want to respond to this instead of

going out and trying to put out the fires by myself.

I love that. And, and it, and it, it goes

back to some of the language that Grant was using yesterday

of like putting, putting these things in their rightful places,

right? That like there is, you know,

putting Jesus in his rightful place as as as king over the

universe and even the winds and waves in the lake, you know,

and, and there is something, there is something to take very

seriously there, you know, and, and yet, and again, this is me

sort of not wanting to temper that because I think that it is

both is a both and it is not an either or but that, that, but

that also this is the same Jesus who who reaches that extends out

to us in love and does offer us peace and comfort.

And as we encounter challenging situations.

And and yet I also think it's because of the fact that he is

powerful to save that he can do that because, because if he is

only offering just like platitudes, mild platitudes of

OHE, like I will, I will be with you, I will go before you.

I will do this, I will do that. And, and, and then, but not able

to back it up with this kind of stuff that's just empty words,

right? And and and so that is so let me

maybe the way for me to say it is Jesus can only be our comfort

because he is worthy of our fear in in this sort of situation.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And he's a like, very safe place for that fear.

Yeah, like. Hmm.

Yeah, it's not as though he, you know, kicks the disciples.

This isn't the moment where Jesus asks Peter to step out

onto the water. And I think sometimes that's

what we ask of people when they're afraid and when they're

struggling with how to respond in their fear to God is to be

like, well, this is your get out of the boat moment.

Hmm. And I think that that very much

neglects the like safety and comfort of Jesus, that he was

like in the midst of the storm, like he kept the disciples safe

and out of harm and like that that matters like.

Yeah, good. That's good.

So let's talk a little bit about that's kind of bring it home a

little. You know, there are, as I said

earlier, just a ton of situations in our own church

community, you know, not gonna name them, but but we could, you

know, start talking for for hours about the the challenges

that folks in our church are facing, you know, real life,

life and death, life altering, you know, illnesses and

situations. And it could be so damaging you,

you know, to ask them where is your faith, right?

You know, like, and yet how do we, how do we approach, you

know, in our own lives? And I can think about, you know,

some circumstances for my own life.

How do we approach Jesus when we are drowning in the storms of

life? To use an overused metaphor,

yeah, I I know. For me, I do want a Jesus in

those moments who is that dual sort of like powerful can do, do

stuff, get stuff done. And yet also will be my, my

comforter and my, my shelter and my supporter.

You know, all of those things. And, and, and I do believe Jesus

is all those things. And yet I also think that there

are, there are things we can build into our life.

You know that yes, we, we put our faith and our trust in Jesus

and also, hmm, there are other things that we can do.

Um, you know, fear as, as we've talked about, fear is a natural

response. Fear is like, it's a biological

response. You know, we're scared people.

People are scared of heights because heights can kill you.

Yeah, yeah, some people aren't scared enough of heights.

I am one of them. II As we were overlooking a very

steep Cliff last week, I remembered when I was 10 years

old and we were along the somewhere in the East Coast of

Canada, I think it was Grand Manan Island in the middle of

the Bay of Fundy. And they have these like 200

plus foot cliffs overlooking the water.

And I approached them just a little too quickly and the the

screams from my mother, Justin got away from the edge.

You know, I was like, I probably could have been a little bit

more afraid. Yeah, yeah, or like the guy that

jumped from the edge of space. Do you remember that?

Oh yes. Yeah, he passed away.

Doing that. Not from the edge of space, but

paragliding, which another would be more afraid of heights.

Yeah, Yeah. So there is a biological

response. We can't control that.

Like that is just, it's baked into our, like our, our literal

bodies and minds. Now there's obviously some fears

that are a bit more pathological that maybe need a little bit of,

you know, maybe a bit more irrational and, and I might need

a little bit of help from some professional counselors and, and

psychotherapists, etcetera. But in general, fear is a, a

normal, natural response to life's circumstances.

And, and so we can put our faith and trust in Jesus.

We can look at, look to Jesus as, as powerful and, and, and

able to overcome our, our circumstance.

Um, but also what other things, what other practices are are

good for us in those moments? So beyond so there's prayer,

obviously taking time to just be still before God.

There's there's lots of these spiritual practices.

What are some practices that you've done to help you?

I think my impulse when I am afraid or deciding like do I

want a God who's powerful right now or do I need the God who is

comforting is then just paralysis and I want neither.

And so then I, my impulse would be to just not engage because

I'm like, well, I don't know, should I want, do I need God to

intervene or do I need God to just make space for me?

And what I've found to be really helpful is, I mean, a, like

moving my body, like, because like whether or not, you know,

we're getting chased or we're, there's heights or like there's

a, something we should rightly be afraid of, when we feel fear,

our body will still respond. So I have to, for me like engage

my body in whatever practice I'm doing.

So like go for a walk or like, I mean like I don't like lift

weights, but like building things like putting together

IKEA furniture is actually like I find to be very therapeutic.

You've heard it. You've heard it here, folks.

So if you have a kit furniture you want built.

I didn't say I did it calmly, but but it it is like an outlet

of like, OK, I have like, you know, I'm figuring something

out. I'm following instructions.

I'm and then pairing my prayer like with another activity so

that there's like engagement with so that my body recognizes

OK, like like we're safe. Yeah.

And then I can rightly assess that scenario or attempt to do

not do it well all the time. Hmm.

And that's, yeah, so helpful for me.

And then I think like the other thing that I come back to a lot

is Psalm 77, which talks about like, remembering the songs I

used to sing in the night. And this idea of like looking

back and remembering the ways that God has already showed up

and that I am not special enough to be the first exception to

God's faithfulness. And I might not like how God

shows up, or I might prefer that he show up in a different way,

or that he just deal with it and I don't have to do anything.

Just, yes, calm the storm by yourself, please.

I'll let you do that. God, that's often not how he

chooses to do it, but to take time and look back and reorient

myself from there instead of from where I am now.

That's good. I know for me, you know, I fear

and anxiety are not synonymous. I don't think maybe I think

often they accompany one another, right?

Often anxiety can crop up out of nowhere, but often when you are

fearful, your mind can start, you know, racing.

Your heart can start palpitating at a faster rate.

And, and sometimes when you're anxious, sometimes when you are

fearful, the hardest thing to do can be to, to find a way to calm

your mind. And I had a wonderful Christian,

she was a psychiatrist and she, you know, she gave me that just

like a list of exercises. She's like, you know what, God

has made our brains amazing. They are capable of, of lots of,

lots of terrifying things, but also their capacity for their

capacity for growth and, and the way in which you can like,

actually like overcome some of these things, you know, just buy

it like being still, hmm. And, and breathing deeply.

And, and, and part of that, I think is something even like

being sometimes a little uncomfortable.

It's a little uncomfortable to be still.

It's a little uncomfortable to breathe really deeply and, and

breathe in and breathe out. And I often am pairing that.

And this was encouraged, you know, impairing that with, you

know, like little mini prayers as I'm breathing in and

breathing out, right. And there's a, a practice called

centering prayer, which, which is really like slow, really

intentional, um, repetitious prayer.

And, and it, and it has, I think the, the byproduct of combing

your brain and calming your mind and, and allowing you to see

things clearly. Because when our minds are

racing, when our, when our fear is taking over, we can't think.

They see things clearly. And that doesn't mean like, if

you're in the middle of like and there's I'm just some of the

situations in our in our own church community that are coming

to mind for me that are so challenging.

It doesn't mean it's going to go away.

It doesn't mean that, that you know, you're all of a sudden

gonna feel all better. Um, but in these moments of, of

like heightened fear and anxiety, we can still ourselves

before God and, and at least try to think as clearly as we can.

Because sometimes we end up in those moments fixating on things

that we can't control, fixating on things that that are just

going to help cause us to spiral and spiral versus being able to

say clearly and calmly. This is out of my control.

And it really sucks because I want God to intervene and step

in and I'm going to pray into that, that God would heal this

family member or do this or do that or fix this broken part in

me. So you can, you know, you can do

that while also looking at OK, if I'm calm, if I'm, if I have

this moment to steal my brain, I can then look and say, OK, these

are the things that I can control.

These are the things that maybe Jesus is calling me to step into

and to do and to say like this is this is like, I can't, I, I

can't touch that. That's up to God.

This is the This is my part. Yeah, but we really can't.

Like that's not accessible if you were freaking out.

And I'm like, so often I feel like I'm just like, like a

toddler before the Lord where I'm like flipping out, like, you

know, slamming doors, stomping my feet.

And it's been just, God is so kind and just like, you know,

letting me have my moment and then looking with compassion and

being like. Hmm.

You know, that was what it was. Maybe let's work on not doing

that again and figuring that out.

But like, it's only once I am done having that moment, yeah,

that I can like, engage with God and engage with my surroundings

and decide like, God either has this or he doesn't.

And in faith, I'm going to choose to believe that he does.

And let that just be what it is. That's good.

Yeah. I like, I like the idea that we

are like toddlers before the Lord, like, like, because it's

kind of true. And and I love in in a moment

of, of real. This is like 10 plus years ago

where I was experiencing some very real anxiety.

Just I don't even know where it all came from, but I was, yeah,

I was feeling pretty just my general state of anxiety was,

was pretty bad. I had to stop drinking coffee

for like a month. It was, that was, yeah, it was

trying times, but someone drew my attention to Psalm 131, which

has always been like a a moment where I can sort of like breathe

in, breathe out and just hear the words.

You know where it says my heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are

not haughty. I do not concern myself with

great matters or things too wonderful for me.

But I have calmed and quieted myself.

I am like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child.

I am content and it's like man, like that.

I would just read that, Hmm. And I would just sort of like be

still and calm my heart. And, and it was like this

beautiful moment of like, you know, I know this is a weaned

child here, but like, I think with like a child after like a

temper tantrum, like, and, and they're, and they're just like,

they're out of energy. They're out, they're, they're at

their wits end. And they're just like, dad, I

just can, I just have a snuggle, you know, and, and it's, it's a

beautiful image. It's a really beautiful image.

And, and so maybe that's a, unless you had any further

thoughts, maybe that's a maybe a good spot to end as we think

about the ways in which we approach Jesus in places of, of

fear. And, and again, like I said, we,

I recognize there are some, you know, situations spoken and

unspoken that are happening in, in, in our world, in your world.

And, and just to think through how do we see Jesus in, in this?

How do we know that he is with us?

What is our approach to him? And so I hope you'll consider

some of these things as you go into your week, maybe take some

time to kind of chew on, you know, your fear response.

Where does your relationship with with Jesus land in those

moments? Do you retreat?

Do you lean in? Do you, do you kind of beg Jesus

to, to do something, to step in? Or are you someone who is

tending to become overcome with fear and anxiety in those

moments to the point where you can't even think straight?

Just think through some of these things.

What's our approach? What are some things that we can

place in our lives that will help us to experience the

fullness of who Jesus is? That Jesus is both this

powerful, this this powerful God who can respond to the winds and

waves and is also our our, our comfort in challenging times.

And so I hope you'll take this into your week.

Have a great rest of your week and we'll see you next time.