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 What I am about to say, I say with the caveat that my wife is perfect, flawless, and above reproach in all things.  That said … sometimes she locks me out of the house.  This is not something she does maliciously.  She just she feels more comfortable with all the doors locked when she is home alone.     

It’s not an unreasonable position by any means! But I will admit that I still find it frustrating. When I am coming home with a car full of groceries, while carrying a child (or two … or three for that matter!), and my hands are occupied and it’s minus ten degrees outside, the last thing I want to do is set everything down so I can fish my house key out of my pocket!    And in my moments of unreasonable frustration, I sometimes wonder, “Kirstin, what are you afraid of?”  Vagrant racoons wandering in?  Escapees from the nursing home down the street?  That somebody is going to break in and steal our collection of diapers, baby wipes and broken kids’ toys?   

Sometimes, our fears of the thing are worse than the thing itself.  And it turns out God doesn’t want us to live in fear either.  

In Adam Hamilton’s book “Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times”, he gives the example of the car side mirrors that say “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.”  He writes that when it comes to our fears, “obstacles, dangers and threats appear larger and closer than they really are.”    

Fear is a powerful emotion that developed to keep us safe over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. But it’s easy to let it get the best of us, causing us to inflate the problem more than what it really is – causing us to lose faith.   In our Gospel this week, Jesus gives a prime example. 

Some Pharisees come to Jesus to tell him that Herod wants him dead.  I certainly would be terrified if I heard a powerful person had a vendetta against me.  We all would!  

But Jesus responds by saying, “I have work to do, and it’s all in God’s hands” (my paraphrase).  He doesn’t give in to fear.  He responds in trust and faithfulness.   

That’s our call as well.  Don’t give into fear.  Trust in God.