It was quite a few years ago, by bonfire much like this, that I opened my Bible for direction. My husband and I had just got done discussing the challenges that children can go through, and as they grow, the more difficulties they can face. Like most parents, we lamented and worried about how we could protect our son from such difficulties. Both of our hearts were heavy as we thought on the painful trials and tribulations life can bring, and how much we wanted to keep him safe and untouched by hurt. As the discussion deepened over the temptations that grow with age, both of us espoused the feeling of fear compounded with uncertainty of how to guard him from the pains that we could remember from childhood or had seen others go through as well as choices made early in life that may later be regretted.

As the evening grew and the conversation ended, I felt more unsettled.  You see, I like to have a plan.  I like to feel like I have some control of what is coming.  I have learned that most people in life desire the same thing.  In fact, I haven’t met a person yet who doesn’t seek to control their world.  Some do it quietly and others do it loudly.  Some manipulate and others are more direct; each seeking to obtain a way to control, though by different means and methods.  And so, I opened God’s word hoping for some insight and instruction as to the anxious feelings I was experiencing about not being able to stop what my son may have to go through off in the future land of growing up.

Much to my surprise, I opened to the story of Jonah and laid eyes on Jonah 2:8 (NIV). Honestly, my first thought was “What?  Worthless idols, clinging, forfeiting?  Where? How? I don’t think so.”   But years of being in His word brought me back to trying to understand more of what this verse meant.  Was it saying something about my life?

“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

I started with grace.  Grace is not limited to just the concept of “saving grace” as we so often like to think of.  Instead it can involve things like happiness, contentment, trust, goodness; in a way, the qualities of life, a good life, that is produced as the life is being lived.  Understanding that the word “forfeit” meant to give up something, the verse nudged me to ask myself the following questions:  Where and what grace am I relinquishing unnecessarily?  And how?

God had me hooked.  I wanted to know more.  So I dug deeper into the other words and began thinking about my life.  As I explored “idols”, I was able to draw the inference through its synonyms, and the origin of its roots, that fears and passions can become our “idols”.  It was there in the word “fear” that I realized what I was doing.  I was fearing the future unnecessarily rather than living in the reality of the moment where there was no need for that overwhelming fear.  I was forfeiting the grace of the gentle descent of the beautiful sunset while sitting by a warm and captivating bonfire, and surrounded by the peaceful sounds of children’s laughter and joy as they happily embraced the delight of a summer evening.  The gift of those sights and sounds lost in the relentless chattering of those far-off fears…

I soon realized that by tending and nurturing those fears with worry and anxiety of what could be, though was not, I was clinging to my fears rather than turning to God about them.  Honestly, the fears I was so tightly holding onto and wrestling with were not even a part of his world or ours.  They were, instead, a mirage that did not emerge as we drew closer to those points in time.  And isn’t that so often true with those giant fears that clamor for our attention in the here and now?  We plan, we worry, we thwart, and we seek to prevent only to learn that the adversary never presented itself when the time came.

Those who cling to worthless fears of the future lose the happiness and peace that today has to offer.  Let’s break that down a little more…that each moment has to offer. These moments where God is trying to give to us beauty, happiness, quiet, rest, hope, security, reassurance; you name it.  Yet, we shrug them off embracing a fear that time, itself, routinely proves worthless.

It was an incredible moment and verse that truly has not left my side since.  Every time I am pretending to be brave but filled with fear, God either brings it back to my mind or I open to Jonah 2:8 as a reminder (and question) of what I am truly trusting in.  And every time, I think I am done with it or have figured out all of its nuances, I learn something new…

Friends, it is amazing to think that by embracing worthless fears–by clinging to them– we are literally forfeiting grace God intended for us.  We, ourselves, are choosing to let go of the good God has planned and has in store for our lives.

Go deeper yet: how is that not an idol?  When we choose to embrace the fear, that is worthless, over God, who has empowered us to find courage and bravery, are we not then putting something over Him and His plans for us?  Might it be that we are placing created fear over the Creator?

Be willing, my friends, and He will show where you are choosing fear over grace in your life.  Trust me, it will be more than you ever realized…and then as you release its control, you will find more grace than you ever knew could exist in this life.

Oh, the places we can go and things we can do when we refuse to let worthless fears be in control of this life that God has given us to live.

“I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.”                    Psalm 34:4