Be Strong, Love Deeply

We live our lives with a sense of the gravity of our times. The Bible speaks of war, and the rumor of war, and there is an unsettling awareness that these words are timeless, words that are as true today as they were when they were written. Politicians rise to power, as they have since the days of scripture, and, on occasion, some generate hatred and fear rather than a leadership of wisdom and courage for meeting the challenges of the day. Health can be fleeting. Just last week, a sixty-four-year-old man—a professional trainer in peek physical shape—fell down a flight of stairs; his head impacted a marble floor and slipped away. His wife speaks to the hospital chaplain about her anticipated retirement without a husband and now questions what is ahead for her. Uncertainty and fear are never very far from any one of us. Though both are part of the human experience and cannot be avoided, we can be paralyzed. Taken from us is the capacity to manage and master fear. The result is that we are wrecked by it.

These words from Isaiah shape a holy discourse from God to a people who are fearful. Paralysis has seized them. Such fear has overshadowed life with the result that all hope vanishes. It is a fear that robs the people of memory—a memory that they belong to a God that has been faithful in the past and remains faithful now. This discourse, this address to Israel follows a full and reassuring reminder of a past that included God. God established a peculiar relation with Israel that is governed, writes Walter Brueggemann, by the positive “chosen” and the negative “not cast off.” “The entire memory of Israel is mobilized in this moment in order to assure the exiles that this guaranteed relationship still operates and is decisive for the present and for the future.”[i] This address provides the basis for a movement beyond fear to trust. God asserts, “I am with you, I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will surely help you, I will hold you.” Israel is not alone in a world that rumors of war, evil politicians, and fleeting health.

These decisive words of God are a clarion call for the church to speak; to speak in a climate of fear and a sense of abandonment. If the church fails to speak at such a time of crisis, the church is an empty and hollow thing. The words suggested by God’s purposeful, strong verbs are “Be Strong, Love Deeply!” They capture the strength of God’s massive intervention in our lives that dissolves fear and replaces it with love. As we experience the unseen arms of God’s strength, we are then able to love others who are fearful, to give release to God’s love as it flows through us to others. Strength upon strength is released into the world as the subject of our fears dissolve and become as nothing. Brueggemann shares, “History is everywhere filled with examples of powers that evaporate when they run amuck of Yahweh’s (God) intention for well-being in the world.”[ii] Many crave to live in a world of certainty, free of fear. That is not the world we have been given, nor would such a world require a God. Ours is a world that asks that we rely upon God alone.

How might fear be managed and mastered? Three possibilities are suggested by this speech from God. First, acknowledge that many of our fears may be traced directly to self-interest. Fear is putting ourselves first. Discomfort is unpleasant, and we seek a remedy, an antidote, or a solution that drives the cause of fear away. We are much too wrapped up in ourselves. But God never promised many of the things we seek, such as our own comfort and material security. What is promised is that God accompanies us in life. We are not alone. Jesus taught that we are to deny ourselves first. It is only then that we can follow where God wants to take us. God first, others second, ourselves last. Second, spread out your fears before God in prayer. This example was provided by Jesus on the night he was betrayed. Following that prayer, Jesus was strengthened. Third, school ourselves that we are in God’s hands, “I will hold you with my righteous strong hand.” Anxiety will then diminish, and our life will become a comfort and strength to others who are fearful.

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[i] Walter Brueggemann, Westminster Bible Companion: Isaiah 40-66 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998) 33.

[ii] IBID, 34.