Standing in the Face of Fear
My family and I recently took a trip to the Oregon coast. It’s one of my favorite places – where the peace and ferocity of nature meet, often in dramatic fashion.
Secluded beaches with peaceful bays seem to find themselves adjacent to rocky promontories where the seas violently protest against the shore’s existence.
It is in places like these where I feel God’s strong presence – perhaps because it is in that tension between peace and violence that God seems to exist most tangibly to me. There is something about that tension – like we’ve left the feel-good, storybook narrative and entered into something more risky, more wild, more… real.
It is in those wild places where we feel the smallest.
Nothing reminds us of our finitude quite like watching violent waves crash against rocky shores, shooting tremendous volumes of water 30 feet into the air. The water can claim the lives of the greatest of us and the least of us without bias or preference.
I call nature the Great Equalizer.
In nature, in the wild places, there is no prejudice, there is no manipulation, there is no controlling one’s environment.
Nature does what it’s going to do, and it has no regard for its audience or participants.
As I stood on a rocky point, in awe of the sheer might and force of these crashing waves, I was filled with exhilaration and awe. Some people standing near me caught the short end of a rogue wave and ended up drenched from head to foot, causing me to smirk at their naiveté in standing a little too close to the danger.
As I studied the violence of nature in front of me, my fear turned into respect. As wave after wave came crashing towards us, I began to notice that the rocks I was standing on had the final say in the sea’s battle against the shoreline: it was if they were proclaiming that the water cannot – may not—proceed beyond a certain point.
And sure, there were those who ventured beyond that demarcation line and paid the price for it, but for those of us who stayed close without going too close were completely safe.
I felt like the rocks were proclaiming, we will not budge; we will not be defeated.
And I started thinking: how much of the current fear we’re experiencing in our society is actually warranted?
In a day and age where fear rules supreme, can I find peace as I watch the waves throw their might against the shore?
Because let’s be honest: there is fear coming at us from every direction right now.
Fear that we’re all going to die due to the pandemic.
Fear that the government is taking too much control.
Fear that the government isn’t stepping in enough and is allowing too much freedom.
Fear that the election is going to cause the end of all things if it doesn’t go the way we want it to.
Fear that we’re being lied to.
Fear that maybe what they’re saying is true.
It doesn’t matter which side of the argument our opinions lie on any of these topics; fear is gripping our entire nation like never before.
And if I’m honest, I’ll admit that I’m afraid too.
But the truth is, it’s humanity that is getting battered right now. We’re all in this together, regardless of what our specific fears might be.
Which is why I have to remind myself that, in the midst of this chaos and uncertainty, I can draw upon the promises spoken by the creator of this shoreline: Do not be afraid; I will never abandon you; there is no circumstance I can’t handle; I have defeated death and everything that comes with it.
I can draw hope from that shoreline. One that has stood strong in the face of fear throughout thousands of storms, throughout season after season of change, and in the midst of fierce opposition.
I find hope that we too, as a society, as a humanity, can seek a firm footing, finding peace in the midst of the storm, looking fear in the face and declaring, with the Rock:
We. Will. Not. Let. Fear. Win.
