Is my desire to please God greater than my fear?

 Read Matthew 25:14-30

It was February or March 1980. I was in a CH-46 helicopter hovering at 120 feet. We were rappelling, that is, jumping out of an aircraft and getting to the ground using a rope and a small device called a carabiner.

I had rappelled before but this was my first time from a helo. The guy in front of me was a big kid. By kid, I mean another butter bar in his early 20s. This guy was huge. He was at least 6’4” with wide shoulders and all the muscle you would expect from a warrior.

He was also afraid.

Just to say something in his defense, jumping out of an aircraft that isn’t on fire or about to crash anyway isn’t a natural act. At 120 feet, it might even seem more natural to stay aboard and put out a fire than to jump.

Some of you have jumped out of aircraft at a much higher altitude, for which a parachute was highly recommended. Some jump out of aircraft at altitudes where you need not only a parachute but oxygen as well.

But, there we were at 120 feet, and Second Lieutenant Connolly was frozen at the back of the helo and did not want to move. Major Bo Dishman was our leader and had undoubtedly seen this before.

He talked Connolly into relaxing his grip on the rope and told him that he would count to three and then he would jump. Connolly agreed.

One. Two—and Major Dishman pushed Connolly out the back. He grabbed the rope half a second later but was already 40 feet closer to the ground. The rest was a piece of cake.

Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft doesn’t make sense. Your whole being says, don’t do that! This sort of fear is natural and healthy.

I was at a seminar once on the 40^th floor of a building. During a break, some of us found a balcony. I’m sure someone needed a place to smoke.

In any case, I looked over the balcony and down at the street below. My very being said, that’s far enough!

Sometimes, fear keeps us alive. Sometimes, fear keeps us from living.

The third servant in this parable was afraid. Why? We don’t read that his master had beaten him, so there should have been no physical fear.

We don’t see that his master had threatened him. He had not been on probation. There was nothing in the makeup of the relationship between master and servant that should have prompted fear in the servant.

So why was he afraid?

The master was a hard man. He received a return even when the servant didn’t think he deserved it.

The master had great expectations for his servants. He did not give them more than they could handle; he gave to them according to their ability.

Each servant should have produced a return of some sort, even if it was just a little interest from the bank. But the third servant was afraid.

Afraid of what?

Of things that existed only in his mind. He was ruled by negative fantasies or living out the worst-case scenarios in his mind.

Fear is natural if you are about to jump out of an aircraft. Training can help, but fear is natural.

If someone is shooting at you, your instincts—probably fear based—will tell you that lead and flesh don’t mix well and you should get behind something like a rock or a steel wall. If you watch too many movies, you need to know that cardboard boxes don’t work.

This sort of fear helps keep you among the living.

If your mind is making you afraid, you are dealing with things that may or may not happen, and as it turns out, most of the time, don’t.

Fear can motivate and help you achieve your goals. I am not going through that again!

Fear can initiate. I had better figure this out. It’s time to get it in gear.

Fear can debilitate. I’m not even going to try. I know I will fail.

We have all sorts of irrational fears.  Such as the fear of:

·       Failure. That’s a no-brainer.

·       Success. Yes, sometimes people are afraid they will succeed.  What comes next if I do well at this?

·       Learning something new. You might be surprised how many people this impacts. Such fear seems to increase with age.

·       People expecting more of you. If I do a good job, people will expect more from me next time. This one ties in with the fear of success.

·       Getting too involved. There’s only so much of me to go around. Sometimes, this is a legitimate concern. Sometimes it is an irrational fear. Wait! That one sounds rational to me. For the average person, it might be a legitimate concern. For the Christian, if God has called you to it, he will give you the resources you need so you are not spread too thinly.

Fear is sometimes related to knowledge and our level of risk acceptance.

What does that mean?  There are three main areas of information or knowledge that we deal with in every situation. In just about every decision we make—including and especially those involving an element of fear—these three areas come into play.

There are the Known Knowns. These are things that we know, and we know that we know them. Well, duh!

There are the known unknowns. These are things that we don’t know, but we know that we don’t know this information. For some, this creates an implied task of finding out. We know what to look for—we just need to find the answer.

And then we come to the granddaddy of them all, the Unknown Unknowns, or the UnkUnks, as it is affectionately referred to by those who frequently assess risk.  This is information that we don’t know and we don’t even know—at least yet—that we don’t know it.

You might think that this would be the most debilitating of the three, but typically, only those with a higher risk tolerance than most reach this point.

Most people give in to fear with the known knows or the known unknowns. Few are pioneers who learn as they go, adapt, improvise, and overcome. They navigate the unknown.

These people know that information arrives over time. If you have all of the information, the time for decision-making has come and gone. What you are dealing with has been overcome by events.

That means that people who venture into the unknown unknowns are either crazy or they trust God. Without all of the information at our disposal at one time, we must either act blindly or trust in God.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Try it this way: If we had all of the information at our disposal, it would be impossible to please God. Our decisions and choices might be easier, but they would be void of trusting God.

People not debilitated by fear know that we will have to work with imperfect knowledge as long as we walk the earth in these bodies.  They accept that reality and navigate their way forward.

The third servant never got past the known knowns. He knew his master was a hard man with high expectations, so he didn’t even try. He didn’t even assess his own skills. What could he do with this bag of money?

He didn’t even give it a shot. He buried his money in the ground.

He buried it in the ground!

For the student of efficacy, the lifelong learner desiring growth, and the Christian maturing some each day, this statement should be absolutely repulsive.

He buried it in the ground!

To take what God has entrusted to us—money, time, talents, salvation and grace, our children, the gospel, our minds and bodies, position, status, or the things the world calls KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities) and bury them in the ground should leave a very bad taste in our mouths.

I can’t think of anyone who has ever tried to label me a financial expert or banking whiz, but I know this: Money buried in the ground does not increase. It accrues no interest. It is invested in nothing, and there will be no return on investment.

The best that you can hope for is that it’s still there when you dig it up.

A one-hour trip to the bank to put the money in a CD would have saved this third servant a lot of worry.

He wouldn’t have to worry about someone finding the buried money.

He wouldn’t have to worry about investing it and managing it. Apparently he didn’t have those skills.

He would know exactly where it was.

Putting this money in the bank should have been a no-brainer. It required little effort and would produce a modest return, but the servant was afraid.

Spencer Johnson and Ken Blanchard wrote a book titled Who Moved My Cheese? It’s about dealing with change. The setting is mice in a maze with cheese, and as you might have guessed, things change.

Change is defined as moving the cheese.  It is a simple but not simplistic approach to dealing with change and used by many in the corporate world, but the heart of the message is very simple. How to deal with change is very, very straightforward.  Here it is.

What would I do if I were not afraid?

The answer to this question is often our best course of action. Let’s stand in the place of the third servant.  Maybe, he doesn’t have any real investing skills. But he can open a bank account. He could do that. It was within his ability.

If he weren’t afraid, the third servant would have at least opened a bank account.

I’m going out on a limb here and put a provocation before you. You haven’t lived until you have recognized, dealt with, and overcome fear. Addressing our fears is a part of our abundant life.

The following quote is from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. It is from Caesar to his wife, who is concerned that her husband is about to be killed. She had a dream or a vision that he would be killed.

A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.

If you read Julius Caesar at some point in your life, you might recall that Caesar did get killed. Yes, sometimes, the bad stuff happens.

Sometimes, the worst-case scenario becomes the current situation. Sometimes.

But would fear have prevented his death? I guess he could have never gone out in public again.

If fear governs, don’t expect to ever achieve any great thing. Do not expect a well done good and faithful servant. Expect to live a mediocre life.  Go with the flow. Chill. Don’t stick your neck out.

We have been saved by grace through fear, right?

Your salvation is secure in the grace you received by faith. Fear and faith don’t mix.  

If you live by fear, how will you answer the question I always associate with this parable?

What did you do with what God gave you?

Understand that the answer, I was afraid does not help the situation. Our fear does not exempt us from answering this question.

What did you do with what God gave you?

I am sure that the first two servants dealt with fear as well, but their desire to please their master was so much greater than their fear.

Their desire to please their master was greater than their fear.

So today, I close with this thought. Is my desire to please my Master greater than the fears—rational or irrational—with which I am contending?

Is my desire to please God greater than my fear?

I pray that our desires to please God overwhelm our fears and that we all yield a good return for our Master.

Amen.