Fearing Grasshoppers in a Land of Giants

““Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (Isaiah 8:12–14 ESV)

I've recently learned a new word.

Phobophobia - (n.) A morbid dread or fear of developing a phobia.

This is a real word. There is a diagnosable fear of being afraid. It is hard to believe that somebody could be characterized by such an irony, but there are people who actually suffer from this. Fear has become so pervasive as to become a paradox.

Most people's fear is not that extreme. However, there is an extreme attitude of fear undergirding our Western culture. It's even a business. News stations capitalize on it, therapists make a living from it, and everyone falls into it to some degree. There are medical fears, national fears, international fears, fears of flying, of falling, of death and public speaking. Some fears are big and some fears are small, but the culture of fear is pandemic.

God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, tells us to not fear any of that. Regardless of what our culture deems conspiracy, God wants us to disregard it. The Christian, with regards to this world, is supposed to be fearless.

What I find most interesting is the way he tells us to be fearless. He doesn't tell us to have no fear, but to fear the right thing. We fear grasshoppers in a land of giants. We are mortified by the petty because we are ambivalent towards the significant. As strange as it may seem, this whole world suffers from phobophobia. We are afraid of being afraid of God, so we end up fearing everything else.

My dad, while touring Westminster Abbey, came across the epitaph of a man named Lord Lawrence. The inscription simply read, "He feared man so little, because he feared God so much." Because we are afraid to fear God, since we dread putting him in his proper place, the grasshoppers around us begin to seem big and the pervasive culture of fear overwhelms us. As Christians we must fight the phobophobia inherent in all of us toward God. If Christians truly fear God, they are unstoppable on this earth.

Lord Jesus, I fear you above all else. Because you are my dread, I fear no other and I walk in your great strength!