I am afraid. I want you, mummy. 

Last night my three-year-old daughter Selah was unable to sleep in her own bed as she usually does because she was afraid. Earlier on in the afternoon we had received news that three lions / lionesses are roaming in the area not too far from where we are residing. No explanation could convince her to sleep in the room she shares with her older sister, who was comfortably sleeping. She simply wanted mummy. In her quiet voice and a quivering lip, she said, “I want you mummy.”  As I lay in bed holding and comforting our sweet girl, I realized that love was all the safety I offered her. In a seemingly ordinary moment, she embodied this wisdom and truth: Love is the perfect antidote to the paralyzing effects of fear.

Children and adults alike are consistently navigating situations and circumstances that evoke the emotion of fear in our day to day lives.  Fear is part and parcel of the human experience. We face today, worrying about the future, afraid of what the future may hold. Yes, fear conjures negative connotations  of anxiety and loss of courage within most of us.  We constantly question whether we have what it takes to face the challenges before us. As adults, we learn to set up systems that will help us avoid or escape fear. We spend our ourselves setting up systems that can help us avoid or escape fear in whatever form we perceive it could come at us. Fear propels us to seek safety but if we are not careful, we can settle for safety that is devoid of love for the other. This is evident in terrible systems such as individualism and racism that are rooted in fear rather than in love.

Reflecting on the countless incidences and run ins I have had with fear over the years, there has always been a richer experience of God’s love on the other side of whatever it was I was afraid of. Fear is not something to hide or run away from, but something to face, an invitation to experience the love and faithfulness of God. In our many travels over the years, each new place presents an opportunity to experience new relationships. This is not always easy especially in different cultural paradigms.

Shortly after we had settled in California, I noticed one of our neighbors was heavily pregnant. I often prayed for this neighbor and one time I sensed the Holy Spirit encouraging me to knock on her door and say hello. This was daunting to say the least. Fear started whispering how weird I would seem to her, what if she didn’t want strangers talking to her, I was new in the apartment building and many other reasons came to mind not to reach out to my neighbor. Yet the conviction to reach out to this lady only grew stronger, and I soon recognized that all my flimsy excuses were laced in fear. I decided I had nothing to lose by reaching out. One afternoon, I knocked on our neighbor’s door and simply introduced myself as a new neighbor and was wondering how she was doing. Fear was put to shame in that moment because this lovely lady was so touched by this simple act of kindness and we went on to become good friends. Fear had again attempted to stand in the way of the gift of friendship that God was offering me in a time when friends and family were far away.  

On the other side of fear is love.

Fear almost made me miss an opportunity to pursue graduate studies. I wrestled with the timing of the opportunity as I navigated mothering a three-year-old toddler and a 6-month-old baby in a foreign land with no extended family or the means for paid childcare. Fear consistently whispered you don’t have the capacity to do this now. Fear brought all my insecurities to the fore; did I have want it takes to do a career shift from the sciences to the arts? How would I pay for the studies when I only had a partial scholarship? Yet, the sacred still small voice of God beckoned me to trust God who presented the opportunity. The timing, and all that was needed for success had already been put in consideration. All I had to do was trust God. Fear questions our trust in God. Fear checks whether God is worthy of our trust? Today, I am a less than a fortnight from my master’s graduation. 

 Fear is an invitation to deepen our trust in God.

Each one of us is facing something; uncertainty of the present and the future is part and parcel of life.  Fear assails our decision making. Yet, the only worthy response to the paralyzing and debilitating reality of fear  is to stand in the truth of God’s perfect love. On the other side of fear is an enriching experience of God’s love. God gently and lovingly beckons us to embrace love in facing fear in whatever shape and form it shows up in. Love remains the greatest antidote and reward in facing fear.

My daughter reminded me of something powerful; running to love when afraid, is wisdom. What could be on the other side of whatever fears are assailing you today? What experience of God’s love awaits if you dared to raise your head above the waters of fear to do the thing you sense you ought to be doing? What relationship would be salvaged or even rescued if you dared to embrace love over fear?

Looking forward to hear your own stories when you faced fear and received what was on the other side of it.