Coping with These Fear-Filled Days

If we could see it, fear might look a lot like smog. As the coronavirus spreads through air, the fear it arouses also replicates as people everywhere inhale the anxiety-saturated atmosphere. Both our dread of catching the virus and our cold feet about an uncertain future bring on our worry-sickness. Like actual smog, fear makes it difficult to breathe freely and to see well. Politicians and the media often pollute the airwaves with panic.

Without question, COVID-19 does pose a serious threat. Especially since medical science has not yet produced a vaccine to fight it. To make light of such a hazard would be mindless. But for those serious about following Jesus, it would be faithless to cave in to the toxic fear it whips up.

Fear Dogs Us All

If Jesus had said, “Let the one without fear cast the first stone,” I could throw no rocks. Just as sin crouched outside Cain’s door, fear hunkers down just outside mine. Demanding entry, it projects disabling images of the future. The troubling shadows darken as I get older and time takes its toll from my body. For instance, as peripheral neuropathy intensifies the pain in my feet, fear shouts, “If it’s this bad today, what will it feel like a year from now?” And with an MRI showing the need for surgery to correct severe cervical stenosis, I hear, “What if surgery makes things worse?”

But a couple of mornings ago, in that silent interval between waking up and getting up, a Scripture verse drifted into my mind: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (I Pet. 5:7). The Lord must have known how much I needed that reminder right then. I noticed that this verse has no “if” in it; the words realistically assume we all have anxieties.

Right away, I recognized that this brief instruction related not only to the fears springing from my own elderly aches and pains but also to our panic arising from the pandemic. So, I began to reflect on the verse and do a bit of word-sleuthing.  

The Frightful Effect of Fear

First, what did Peter understand by “anxieties”? In the NIV, that term translates a Greek word with a root that means to disunite, divide, or distract from. It’s the same word Jesus uses in his parable of the four soils when he warns us about the effect of the “cares” of the world and of life” (Matt. 13:22; Mk. 4:19; Lk. 8:14). In the context of that parable, these cares—like thorns in a farmer’s field—“choke” the seed of the word. How? By crowding around the newly rooted seedling, diverting water and soil nutrients away, and thus squelching maturity and fruit.

Fear works like that in us. It unravels us, diverting us from the Lord’s fruit-producing word. So the more I allow distress over reports of the coronavirus to distract me, the less I’ll be able to focus on letting God’s word release its power in my life. By fretting over how the pains in my aging body may intensify tomorrow, I permit that care to split me away from God’s word-work in me. No wonder Jesus tells us not to “worry” (Matt. 6:31)—derived from the same “anxiety” word Peter used.

But if you’re like I am, hearing and agreeing with “don’t worry” is one thing and doing it is another. Right? So in 5:7, Peter shows us the only way to do that and practice it as a way of life.

Turning Fear into a Throwaway

He says we are to “cast” all that fear-laced anxiety on God. Casting comes close to being a violent word, much like throwing or hurling a live hand grenade to get rid of it. Prayer becomes the catapult we use for lobbing our fears upward and onto God. As Paul puts it, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil. 4:6). One lexicon says Peter’s term “cast” means to “make him [God] responsible for all your worries.” When we fling our fears onto God, we toss over to him the responsibility for dealing with them.

Doing so will not change the circumstances. I still have an aging body—with all its aches and pains. That won’t change until Resurrection equips me with a renovated body. The coronavirus pandemic still rages on around the world. But I am no longer responsible to carry around the weight of the fear it generates.

We retain the responsibility for doing those things God has called us to do. During this coronavirus crisis, that may mean sheltering in place, wearing a mask, washing our hands often, and so on. For me, as I grow older, it involves healthful eating, adequate rest, proper exercise, and getting good medical care. But as for our always-prowling fears, we are invited—yes, even instructed—to pitch the responsibility for them onto the only One who can effectively deal with them.

Paraphrasing Peter

I’ve searched for a word Peter might have used—instead of “cast”—had he lived in our century. The best candidate, I think, might be “upload.” If I create a video and want to make it widely available for others, I will upload it to YouTube. That video-sharing platform then takes responsibility for all the techy stuff far above my pay grade.  

So, here’s my paraphrase of I Peter 5:7—“Upload all your fears and worries to God, because he cares enough for you to take responsibility for them.”