Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

A few years ago my family and I traveled to Panama City Beach in Florida for our annual Festival of Tabernacles celebration and convention with our church. One afternoon my younger daughter and I were enjoying the delicious sunshine and beaches, and separately waded into the Gulf waters and paddled around, lazy and oblivious to everything going on beyond the beach itself.

I came up from a dip from under the surface and glanced ashore, where I saw my friends, jumping, waving their arms in a frenzy, and yelling at me while pointing in my direction. I had no idea what was going on.

Until I saw it.

Coming toward me was a large twelve-foot long creature. Honestly, at first glance I thought I was looking at a dolphin. But then I realized that a dolphin is not a dull brown.

I have a dozen friends who witnessed this and can vouch for the fact that this hammerhead shark was swimming straight toward me – and then veered off to my left after getting within a yard. I could have literally reached out and touched the thing and nearly did.

You might think I was scared out of my mind and hurried to shore as fast as I could, but you would be wrong. My daughter was out farther than I and was oblivious to what was happening.

I could see the shark weaving around, and I half swam and half stumbled through the waters yelling “Get out of the water! Now! Get out! Now!”

Middle-teen that she was, she protested and wanted to know why, which only compelled me to move farther from shore and closer to her.

Clearly we both escaped without injury, but as I stood on the beach watching the huge ugly fish meandering around the shallow waters, someone asked me if I was afraid while everything was happening. I was not – not as long as my daughter was out there and I was trying to get her in. “But right now,” I said, “I’m shaking like a leaf.” And I was.

My perfect love for my daughter overrode my fear, and I did what I had to without hesitation and without regard for danger.

When John wrote, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18), he was talking about a universal principle. Ten years ago the passengers of Flight 93 must have had some apprehension about storming the cockpit of a hijacked plane, but knowing that doing so would save lives, they performed an extreme act of love and courage. That love cast out their fear.

I wonder if Jesus, when facing the last few hours of his life, was emoting fear when he shouted, “Father, if there is any way to let this cup pass from me, let it pass!” But when we read his prayer in John 17, we see his focus changing to his disciples and to us. We hear him talking about his need to die for all mankind, and that love cast out his fear.

“Perfect love casts out fear” might be difficult to understand in the abstract, but it is very real in the acts of heroism that go on every day. That’s important to remember on this September 11 and every September 11 to follow.

By the way, after my near handshake with that shark, my friends were all gathered around me speculating why the shark turned away after getting a good look at me. My old buddy Kevin, I think, had it right. Sharks don’t like Italian food.

Give It to the Poor and Follow Me or Give It to Me and Be Proud of Your Poverty

A young man came to Jesus and asked, “Good Master, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was a rich young man, and after some discussion Jesus got to the nub of the stumbling block. “Go, sell all you have, give it to the poor, and come and follow me.”

Therefore, to fulfill God’s will in our lives and to assure eternal life, we all need to sell what we have, give it to the poor, rely totally on God for our sustenance, and that’s how we follow Jesus. Right?

Wrong!

Before anyone “steps out on faith” and impoverishes himself and thinks he is doing God a service by relying on the charity of others who have not impoverished themselves, remember that those instructions were given to one man, one time because of a specific stumbling block for the purpose of a specific calling. It’s dangerous to generalize based on this one specific.

Paul never demanded that the wealthy Philemon sell all his possessions. Jesus did not demand that the wealthy Zacchaeus give all his wealth away after he proclaimed he would he would give half. We have no record of Joseph of Arimathea divesting himself of his great wealth. Lydia, as far as we know, remained a successful businesswoman.

Abraham became very wealthy as a result of God’s blessings, and so did Jacob and also Joseph the son of Jacob. Job might have lost all his wealth at a trying time in his life, but God restored it two-fold at a later date.

If God has given you prosperity, no one has a right to make you feel guilty about it. At the same time prosperity does demand some obligations.

The first obligation is to recognize the source of your prosperity and appreciate it. Clearly God is the ultimate source of blessings, but often overlooked is a little appreciation for your customers and/or employer and the support of family. And if you received the reward of your labor from hard work and sacrifice – and risk-taking – you can take some credit for that.

You must also realize that money is not your god, nor your source of security, nor the definition of your identity, nor a means to control others. It is entirely possible that the rich young man whom Jesus loved was making one or more of these errors.

And we must also realize that prosperity itself can be a ministry. There seems to be an implicit assumption in some quarters that impoverishing oneself in the name of religion is a sign of nobility and that building wealth is a sign of selfishness. In the world where I live it is those with wealth who create employment opportunities that keeps people from being poor. It is those with wealth who invest in new ideas, contribute to worthy causes, pay taxes to fund the essential functions of government, and carry their own weight so that they do not become a burden on their children or strangers.

Maybe the best way a wealthy person can serve in ministry is not to give it all away, but to invest his capital in a new enterprise that can provide meaningful, livable, and sustainable employment opportunities so that fewer citizens need to rely on the charity of others.

This side of the kingdom the poor will always be with us. But the only way to end poverty is to create wealth. Don't let anyone discourage you from doing so.