Fear

I can only imagine (even though I don’t really want to) the scene that morning in the ancient city of Syracuse.

The oddball scientist ran naked through the streets, dripping wet from his bath. Wild-eyed and oblivious to the stir he must have caused, he shouted the word over and over again.

“Eureka! Eureka! Eureka!”

Our best translation in English? “I have found it!”

What, you might ask, had our threadbare technician discovered?

Archimedes’ theory of displacement.

He had found his solution, and the sheer joy that accompanied the unearthing of his newly found theory left Archimedes unable to sit still. Legend says he didn’t even take time to find his toga.

Apparently, our hero filled his tub a little too full that particular morning, right up to the top. When he settled in for the daily scrub, he realized that the amount of water spilling over the edge seemed directly connected to the amount of space ol’ Archie himself was filling.

As his brain connected the dots of physics, he realized the magnitude of discovery.

The round of primeval streaking that followed is why you feel confident boarding ship for your Caribbean cruise today.

What do people presume that 70,000 tons of metal will float? I’m always amazed that planes can fly, ships can sail and that any of us can circum-navigate Atlanta, Georgia, on I-285 and live to tell the tale.

And yet, we do it every day. And we don’t consider such decisions to be major leaps of faith. After all, Archimedes has done the math.

Ships displace a volume of water equal to their own weight. Forces can be measured, and even 70,000 ton vessels can float. Planes fly – it has to do with “lift,” or something like that – and we trust that someone has figured out that this will, in fact, work out o.k.

Human beings can do amazing things when they place faith and trust in verifiable, observable, time-tested science. Even when we observe other realities --- like ships that sink, planes that crash, or commuters who crash --- we block that possibility from our thinking and forge ahead. After all, if we didn’t, how would we ever “get” anywhere? The reward outweighs the risk.

Trusting in God seems a little tougher.

…4 a.m….rough water…exhaustion…hunger…frustration…fear.

Something was out there, and it was getting closer.

How could any boat be making that kind of time in this kind of storm? The wind had pushed them far from shore.

There were seasoned boat people among them. Even though, to a man, they all had their “sea legs,” fear was palpable in the air, and growing by the second.

There could be no doubt now, something was closing on them. As it drew nearer and nearer, initial misgivings blossomed into full-blown panic.

WHAT…IS…HAPPENING?

Adrenaline pumped, minds raced, and then it happened ---

Somebody said the word… “GHOST!”

After that, I can only imagine that all kinds of things broke loose, if you know what I mean. And you do.

I can’t imagine that anyone among the disciples remembered to reflect upon “Archimedes’ theory of displacement” in the heat of those confusing moments on the Sea of Galilee.

Perhaps, if they had, they might have offered themselves a bit of rational comfort. “Physics tells us that what we’re witnessing can’t be happening, so everything must be fine,” they might have thought. But seeing is believing. And it was happening, right before their eyes.

Fear lives just this side of faith, and it weighs a ton.

Two nights ago, I was jolted out of bed at the sound of one of the most horrific crashes I have ever heard. Instinctively, I knew that this was it. The moment had come when a Hartsfield-bound plane had crashed into our house…or Al-Qaeda had blown up our garage…or Osama himself had come to steal my children and attack my wife.

In reality, what had happened wasn’t quite as dramatic – or dangerous.

Turns out, our enormous, old, fat cat had taken a running shot into a bathtub and knocked the boys’ big, plastic, toy boats to smithereens. It’s amazing what the sound of that sort of feline-induced plastic and fiberglass smash-up can do to a protective dad and husband who has drifted deep into REM sleep.

The “fight or flight” response is a real thing. My adrenaline glands instantly dumped all of their reserve directly into my bloodstream. Then, they made a second batch and dumped that, too. After that, they put some more on backorder, and started looking for extra on Ebay.

I was instantly awake, though not yet rational. I leapt (not kidding, this is Holly’s eye-witness account) out of bed and in one gigantic hop, I managed to place myself at the entrance to our bedroom, eyes fixed on the door to our garage, where I could take on the marauders invading our home, and fight them to the death.

Seriously, we’re talking kung fu pose, and the whole deal. There was also a kind of guttural cry involved, and an utterance of the phrase, “Come On! Come On!” ….as in, “Bring It, Osama!!!”

I cannot eat pizza that late in the evening.

What I’ve learned is this. Real fear is a powerful thing. It can grip us like a giant hand, squeezing and choking away life. “Fear” and “thought” don’t do well together, and “thought” pretty much always loses that battle.

The result is that we human beings are willing to do almost anything to avoid dealing with our fears.

We figure out how to engage the world in such a way that our safety and comfort-level can always be assured. We devise formulas, test and re-test, and only board boats that we believe can float through any storm.

We cling, white-knuckled, to the false “faith” that says boats of our own making can never be sunk. Down deep, we know better, but the boat always feels safer than the storm.

There’s only one problem.

Jesus.

He comes walking across the water.

I don’t know why he chooses to send the disciples on ahead that night, or why he decides to teach them such a dynamic object lesson in that storm.

But I think he means to show them, and us, a thing or two about fear.

Fear is heavy. Fear sinks. Fear can’t get out of the boat.

But faith….it’s buoyant.
It displaces…pushes…lifts.

Fear didn’t move Peter to ask if he could come to Jesus. Faith did. Faith somehow held his feet steady on the waves. Faith moved him closer and closer.

Fear made him fall…and Jesus was there to catch him.

This week at SOTH, we’re gonna talk about the things that scare us. As we begin our study of If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat, we’re going to think about the truth of John Ortberg’s first assertion.

Following Jesus means receiving a call from God, for every single one of us, to engage in a particular work in this world. And when God calls us, as he surely does, we always find ourselves afraid.

But faith lives just on the other side.

Come take the first step this Sunday.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

Welcome to Mike and Karen Hubbard, and Jake and Jessica. It’s a real joy for them to welcome them into membership at SOTH!

Fall Community Groups – Over 40 adults are involved in 4 Fall Community Groups for in-depth study of If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat! Groups have their first meetings this week, and it’s not to late to join the fun.

Mondays at 6:30: Tim Potate and Lamar Gilstrap lead, and the group meets at Tim and Ellie Potate’s house – 5595 West Chapel Hill Rd.

Thursdays at 6:30: Hosts are Bill and Mona Clary, 3841 Oak Hill Rd., with Sandra Wells leading.

Fridays at 7:00: Mike and Krys Brooks host, 3810 Georgia Drive, with Derrick Fountain leading.

Saturdays at 6:30: Jim and Cindi Bartlett host – 4297 Doublegate Drive, and Andrea Vantrees will lead.

More great things are coming in October, including our annual Pumpkin Patch youth fundraiser for the community! We need lots of volunteers to help run the patch, and you can sign up on the Youth bulletin board in the church hallway.

Delivery is scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, October 13th, and we’ll need lots of help unloading the truck. Truly, this is always one of the most fun time of working together that happens throughout the year, and you don’t want to miss the spectacle of thousands of pumpkins being unloaded for the folks lined up in traffic up and down Chapel Hill Road!