CounterFormation: Fear

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Fear

Augustine says that Peter's denial was not one of unbelief but of fear. No surprise there. Peter still believed that Jesus was who He said He was but Peter was so afraid of the consequences of that belief that he lied and denied Christ.
Our actions are based only partly on our belief. Our actions are generally based on trust or fear. Fear about what might happen or trust about what might happen. Not trust that God will make everything go well but trust that God can make wine out of water, redemption out of a cross, something good out of suffering if need be. We must not be afraid to suffer. We must believe that God is a God who does not end all suffering but does use suffering.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Fridge Parenting (to post on your fridge)

Refrigerator Parenting Tip #4

To have conversations with your child, ask who, what, when, where, how, why questions. These are called open-ended questions which means they cannot usually be answered “yes” or “no”. The next step is to listen. An easy way to let people know you hear them is to not intrude or judge and then keep the conversation alive (even with adults) by simply restating the last thing they say.

“How was lunch today?” “It was fine.” “Fine, huh?” “Yeah, ok.” “What did you have?” “Ham.” “You had ham?” “Well, ham and macaroni.” “Oh, ham and macaroni.” “Yeah, Billy took my roll.” “Took your roll?” “He and Sam started playing catch with it.” ‘Playing catch with it?” ……… You get the idea. It sounds robotic and fake but it makes you pay attention and confirms to them that you actually are hearing them.