Have you ever played that old carnival game called “Whack-A-Mole”? It’s a silly little amusement where little “moles” pop up out of a big rectangular box, and your only job is to bop that annoying mole on the head with a rubber hammer.
Like that game, sometimes spiritual “moles” pop up in our lives. You name it — cynicism, doubt, rage, despair — can easily pop up and threaten to derail our emotional and spiritual health. But in this day and age, one of the biggest moles seeking to destroy our spiritual walk is this: fear of the future.
So many of us live with some fear of the future, big or small. We worry about our financial futures, our own health, our children’s paths, our career trajectories, our aging parents, and the day’s headlines.
We also have personal fears about the future. Will my dreams ever come true? Will I miss what God has for me? We have fears about losing loved ones or our own safety.
I read somewhere that “to be afraid is to be killed by one’s own mind.” When that fear of the future “mole” pops up, it can certainly feel like that — like there is a storm raging in our minds, bodies, and in our spirits.
How Do We Stop That Storm of Fear Regarding the Future?
How do we begin whacking, or knocking down, the fear of the future?
The good news is in Jesus, we can.
There’s a story about Jesus that’s repeated several times in the New Testament — so we can assume it’s important because of its consistent presence in the Bible.
Jesus and his followers were in a boat at night, in the dark, which is already the plot point of a horror movie! The Bible says that a huge storm — “ a furious squall” — came out of nowhere.
This great windstorm arose, the waves began breaking into the boat, and the boat was quickly filling up with massive amounts of water.
Jesus’ friends and followers were terrified that they were going to drown, but all the while, Jesus was not worried about a thing. In fact, he was so unbothered; he was sound asleep.
Here's how Mark 4:38-41 tells the story:
Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly, the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. Even the wind and waves obey him.”
Anytime we read a story in the Bible about Jesus doing something with water — calming water, standing in water, getting baptized, walking on water, teaching on a boat, or bringing in a big catch of fish — it’s helpful to remember that for the ancient audience who would have originally heard these stories, water was a symbol of chaos, of darkness, of evil, and ultimately of fear.
So, when the Bible describes Jesus as having power over water, authority over storms, and control over nature, that’s a sign to that first audience and to us as well that Jesus has power over the chaos, darkness, and fearful things in our lives.
The point is that storms will rage — metaphorically, literally, spiritually, and physically, storms will rage. But we can trust in Jesus because, in Christ, no storm has the final word over our lives.
No storm has the final victory over our lives. In fact, Jesus has power and authority over every storm that comes our way, both now and in the future.
So, in the light of Jesus’ power, here are a couple of ways to begin knocking down your fear of the future.
Acknowledge the Reality of Future Loss
Loss is part of the reality of being human — period. It has been throughout history and will be for the foreseeable future.
The problem is, when we take the reality of loss and multiply that by our human tendency to try to do whatever we can to avoid the unavoidable — when we try to avoid the reality of loss —that’s when our future fears are actually multiplied and emphasized and grow oversized.
This is fear’s great irony: we experience anxiety, worry, and uncertainty all around the fear of loss, but loss is an absolute certainty for all of us.
It sounds counterintuitive, but a powerful way to begin knocking down our own fear of the future is by simply acknowledging the reality of future loss.
In other words, if loss is unavoidable (which it is), and our human tendency is to do our very, very best to avoid the reality of that loss, all of that synthesizes into a perfect storm of fear.
Therefore, in order to begin knocking down our fear of the future, we have to acknowledge and accept that loss is a part of life.
Now, it’s a devastating part of life, certainly, but loss is something we cannot change. Loss is part of the human experience. And we cannot fight our fear of the future by denying that.
The entire Bible is actually a story of people who were afraid, so much so that one of the most common things God says to people is do not fear — I am with you.
The early followers of Jesus in the boat that day in the terrible storm didn’t pretend like they weren’t afraid. They didn’t act like this storm was nothing.
The Bible says they were terrified for their lives. They acknowledged the reality of their future loss, and they ran to Jesus to help them because they knew he was the only one who could do something about it.
There will be loss in all of our lives. We can’t change that or deny that, and to do so actually increases our fear. But we can trust Jesus, who in the storm remains unshaken. Why? Because he knows that the future is held firmly in his hands. We can trust that as well.
Accept Your Fearful Self
I have a friend who does Internal Family Systems work in therapy. I’m a few credits shy of my psychology degree, so bear with me.
But part of Internal Family Systems is the idea that we all have parts — our doubtful parts, our worried parts, our shameful parts, our child parts, our joyful parts, etc.
Many of us also have a Fearful Part — that part of ourselves that feels afraid of the future or of some aspect of the future.
Often, when it comes to the fearful parts inside of us, we tend to hide our shame or even reject that part of ourselves.
I wonder if instead of shaming or rejecting the fear in you — the fearful parts in you — what if you learned to welcome, embrace, and accept that part of yourself with compassion, empathy, curiosity, and love?
Again, this is counterintuitive because we’ve been taught subconsciously that it’s bad to fear. Some of us have even been taught that it’s sinful to be afraid.
But practically, in order to actually knock down our fear of the future, we need to learn to accept and embrace the parts of us that are afraid.
In the story of Jesus on the boat in the storm with his disciples, Jesus asks them, in Mark 4:40- “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
We can read this as a rebuke. We can even read it like Jesus is annoyed with the disciples for their fear. But this is Jesus’ invitation. Jesus is saying to his disciples and to us, “Hey, I know you’re afraid. But you can trust me with your fears and your future. I’ve got this.”
That part of you that is afraid is a part of you that God deeply loves. God is not disappointed by your fearful self, so you don’t need to be. In fact, our fearful part can actually be a gift that leads us closer to the heart of God. So, accept, don’t reject, your fearful self.
What’s so powerful about the good news of Jesus Christ for the Christ-follower is this: through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can trust his victory over the grave and his promises of eternal life. So, everything we fear is already in his unshakeable hands.
Join us for Part 2, when we talk about two more ways to knock down the fear of the future.
For further reading:
How Is God Not the Author of Fear?
Should Godly Women Laugh Without Fear of the Future?
Why Should We Not Worry about Tomorrow?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Motortion
