Fear-/fi(ə)r/
Verb: Be afraid of (someone or something) as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening
Noun: An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat
The other day, I watched one of the silliest movies ever. I should have known- rarely are scary movies worth your time. Most of the time, they end up being more comical than scary (Dawn of the Dead anyone?). Anyway, one of my best friends and I rented "Case 39" with high hopes of experiencing a cinematic thrill seeing as to how its two headliners are respectable Hollywood actors. Errr, wrong. Add an incredibly predictable plot (little doe-eyed girl possessed by a demon starts creepily killing people off) with hokey dialogue and twists (if you can even call it "twists") and you've got yourself a below average movie that's predictably dull at best.
But I'm a firm believer that nothing is irredeemable. (Am I? I think I just became one just now. Or realized that that's how I've always thought. Interesting.) And like all things, this movie had it's redeeming elements. I'll spare you the ho-hum details lest you think this movie is worth your time and skip right to my point.
Fear. It showed me fear.
Okay, not fear as in I was scared watching it. Okay, maybe a little at parts. But fear in a different way. In order to explain, I regrettably have to tell you some of the movie. In short, this kind-hearted, do-gooder, most likely a fan of the go-green movement social worker (yeah social work!) named Emily adopts a little girl as her own to save her from an abusive home. Aside: the girl is a demon seed. Literally. She might even be satan incarnate, I'm not sure. That's an important aside by the way.
Thirty minutes into the movie, people start dying. In weird ways. This little girl (i.e. Satan) finds out what people's worst fears are and then unleashes it on them. For example, this one guy reveals that he has a deadly fear of hornets. Cue hornets coming out of his eyes and ears and mouth all of 2 scenes later. Props to Bradley Cooper for a scene well-acted. No props for Ang and I for sticking with this movie all the way through. I told you- it was baaaaad. Anywho, the demon girl eventually finds out Emily's (the social worker and newly adopted mom) worst fear and makes it play out on her.
When Emily was a little girl, her mother (spoiler alert) purposely crashes the car they are driving. It was a very stormy day. Emily's mom dies; Em does not. So for the rest of her life, Emily carries this deep sense of abandonment from her mother and an ever present fear of driving in the rain. So where does she find herself years later? Driving through the nonstop rain, 18 wheelers coming straight at her, visions of her mom crashing their car vividly playing through her mind and demon seed girl by her side, yelling into her ear that this is all real. This all happens in a mater of 10 seconds. After all, it is a movie and they have to make at least the climax interesting. But when demon seed girl is screaming to Emily that this is her worst fear being played out, Emily suddenly has an epiphany and yells, "This isn't real!"
And she was right.
The 18-wheelers flying at her like bullets, the torrential rain, the visions of her mom- they were all illusions that demon seed girl had created to evoke fear in Emily. And it worked. For a while anyway.The second Emily yelled that none of it was real, the demon seed girl started panicking. Emily had no more fear. She wasn't afraid. And suddenly, demon seed girl had lost any bit of power over Emily that she once had. Emily disarmed satan's most powerful weapon against her: fear.
And it hit me, fear is the root of all my woes. Sure pride, too. But I think the two might be cosmically connected in a way. After all, if I was trusting in the One who made me and knows me and spoke all things into existence, I wouldn't fear- because I'd know it's not up to me or about me; it's about Him. Fear is ultimately rooted in pride. So I guess pride is the root of all evils. But that's not my point right this second.
My point is this: fear is a thief. An invisible thief but a thief nonetheless. And I think its invisibility makes it all the more effective. And you know who else is a thief? Satan himself. So it makes sense that his weapons against humanity are designed to steal joy, trust, and belief in the One who is Joy, who is fully trustworthy, and who is wholly pure, loving, and in control. He convinces us that we need to take matters into our own hands, that God isn't out for our good and thus we can't count on Him.
Fear is the root of my anxiety, my insecurity, my self-protectiveness thus my selfishness, my doubt, my unbelief, my despair, and my sorrow (and probably other stuff I can't remember right this second). And the worst part about it is that fear isn't even real- Satan is a master of trickery and illusion. Fear that I'll be alone the rest of my life, fear that the people I love will leave me, fear that I'm not enough, fear that Jesus' promises don't qualify for me specifically, anxiety about my future- all that is an illusion. Because the truth is that Jesus says He came to give me Life and Life to the full, that I have a rich inheritance in Him that can never be taken from me, that no good thing does He withhold from me, that He carries me close to His heart, that I am precious and honored in His sight, that I don't have to fight this battle alone because the battle is His and not mine, that I can never be plucked from the hand of the One who loves me and has fought off the powers of hell for me, that those who fear God alone lack nothing, that all things work together for my good, that perfect Love drives out all fear, and that I will never, ever be alone because He will never, ever leave me.
Those promises are truth. Anything to the contrary is a lie.
So why do I fear so much and so often?
I mean, all of it makes sense- Satan came to steal my life; Jesus came to give me life. I want to choose to believe that. Just like the trucks and memories that flooded into Em's vision as she was driving her car were designed to distract and derail her and ultimately kill her, so are the lies and illusions Satan throws at me, at everyone. And the only way to stop buying into all the lies isn't to necessarily stop having fear all together- it's to have fear of the right One. And to let His love dispel my fears.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Psalm 111:10
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." 1 John 4:18
The only power Satan has is the power God allows him to have. And the good news for people that belong to Jesus is that God turns what Satan means for evil into good, for His glory and our joy. So the moral of all this is to say, I want to heed the Bible's most frequent command: fear not. God tells me 'do not be afraid.' Alright. I have nothing to fear because if God is for me, then who can stand against? I want to fear God and Him alone. His love is strong and has the power and willingness to dispel all my fears. Every last one until I fear only Him.
Oh, and that even crappy movies can be redeeming.
