Emojis are a delightful addition to the technology landscape. You can express your feelings with images and get your point across. You can even string together a number of them to replace a sentence, and your receiver will know where to meet you for lunch, how to take a bus, or almost anything else. But the one emotion I can’t accurately express with an emoji is fear. I’ve looked through them. Some fear emojis are cute, some are sad, some are maybe even a little unsettling. But none of them speaks to the actual fear I am trying to communicate.
I have experienced at least two general types of fear in my life. One is sudden and fleeting, like when I see a bug in my path. Whatever fear emoji is handy works fine because it isn’t that big a deal: I can handle it; I have a solution. I can change paths, adjust my expectations, or get out of the bug’s path. (It was probably there first anyway.) But the other type of fear is something entirely different. There are no cute emojis and no handy solutions. Because the fear is almost all encompassing.
It is wide and aggressive; well beyond the logic of reality.
When I feel this way, I only know a few ways through. I can call a friend or talk with a counselor or pastor. But most importantly, I know can give my fear over to God. I can always give my problems over to God. And He is always ready to receive them (1 Peter 5:7). But if I find myself resisting, then I know the resistance is not something small, like a bug in my path.
It is wide and aggressive, like my fear.
It’s a shame, too, because God is greater than our fears.
- 1 John 4:18, 19
- Isaiah 41:13
- Isaiah 43:1-4, 10-11
- Isaiah 44:6-8
Let’s Commit
Take steps to improve your relationship with:
- God – Isaiah 53:1-5; 1 John 3:20; 5:7-9
- Others – Isaiah 54:1-5; 1 John 3:18
- Self – Isaiah 1:18; 55; Luke 12:22-34; 1 John 5:3-5