The Psalter of Jesus: Faith for the Fearful // Psalm 55

We are afraid, all of us. And it is no use pretending otherwise. The stoics who lean hard on such pretense wind up dismantling their souls and cutting off the tender places of the heart until love and mercy wither. That is folly. The alternative is to acknowledge our fear, which is no easy thing. Our fears encircle and overwhelm us. They fester in the soil of our rotting flesh, spawning nausea and panic. And with good reason. Our world threatens loss and exposure and insignificance. We might come to ruin or be found out or maybe even be forgotten. These fears are very real. And faith in God is not a some clever means to help us avoid them. On the contrary, faith in God only forms as the nausea and panic from our fears run their course. In other words, the comfort of faith can only attend the fearful. To deny fear is to reject faith. Jesus shows us a better way. "Join me on the fear-filled road to the cross," he bids us, "and God will meet us there."