Maturing Fears
And a hint at our next study
Hello Friends. I don’t know if you remember or not, but you subscribed to these emails some time ago. I’ve not been as disciplined as I’d hoped with my writing so it may be a surprise to see my name suddenly pop up.
I have several excuses. Some are pretty good, others shed light on some deep issues I should probably see a counselor about (partially joking) but, now with all of that insecure over explaining aside, here’s why I’m writing.
First, I want to say thank you for being on the other end of these emails. If I hit send this message will go to 98 inboxes. Some of you have become paid subscribers and I’m humbled by your generosity.
Secondly, I wanted to let you know that we are coming to the end of our studies in John on the podcast, but we are already making plans for our next study in 2026! We haven’t announced the next study at church yet, so I won’t here either, but I’ll give you some hints. If you guess it…well…I don’t have any prize, but I should send you something.
Hint #1: It’s in the Old Testament. (That narrows it down to 39 books)
Hint #2. It was originally written as one book in the Hebrew manuscripts, but later when the Old Testament was translated into Greek, they separated the books and it stayed that way.
I’ll leave it at two hints for now. I can’t wait for this new study with my class on Sunday mornings and with many of you on the podcast. Make sure you are subscribed to “The Committed Way Podcast” on your preferred podcast app to catch all of the studies in 2026.
As I wrap this email up, I’ll share with you something I wrote a few weeks ago, but didn’t send. That’s become a pattern for me that I’m trying to break. I tend to write when I feeling melancholy. When I face situations I don’t understand. Because of that I just delete most things, but recently I was thinking––most Psalms were written with a backdrop of confusion, hurt, and trouble. We all have those moments. It’s how we respond in those moments that matter. David would pour out his heart to God but end with a verse of his commitment to trusting God in spite of his struggles.
Anyways, here’s a thought I wrote about Fear.
Fears have a way of maturing as we do.
In second grade, I feared my teacher. Enough to cry every day for the first two weeks of school. In seventh grade, I made the bold move of changing haircuts. I went from a comb over to what I’d call an insecure buzz cut. When I sat down in the chair, my mom and I told the barber to give me a buzz cut. Halfway through, I panicked, and my mom, in her attempt to “help,” had him modify the cut. Buzz in the front and longer in the back. I felt like an alien dropped from a foreign planet when I arrived at school the next day. I hid out in the bathroom stall for the first hour of class.
I’ve matured since those days, but so have my fears. I never seem to be able to hide from them. They find me with every new stage of life.
Now, with kids, a whole new set of fears whispers to me.
“Did I raise them right?”
“Will they make the right decision on their own?”
“Will my failures doom them?”
The fears aren’t always logical, but it doesn’t matter. They do what Satan wants them to do. Leave me discouraged and unsettled about my future. To keep my eyes on my circumstance and not on Christ.
It’s in these moments my downcast mind clings to a verse that has become a counselor to me. Psalm 56:3 says,
“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”
Who would have thought that David, the bear, lion, and giant killer, wrestled with his own fears, and his remedy was simple: Trust God.
A phrase we hear nearly every week at church. Trust God. It’s a response of Faith. Sure, it would be nice if the verse spelled out the details of how God would answer my fears, but it doesn’t. It says TRUST GOD.
This verse doesn’t remove fear. It doesn’t tell me how long these fears will last or even what the outcome of those fears playing out will be.
It just reminds me to trust the sovereign God who was “big” and “strong” enough to handle creation and every other major (and minor) problem in this world. To trust the God that loved me enough to send his Son to suffer and die for me.
It reminds me that God’s not going to turn around and forget that me and my fears exist.
Thanks for reading,
Brad