“Those that cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”  Jonah 2:8

Interestingly, if we look at how we are designed, fear is a necessary component of survival. It is something that starts early.  Though a young baby might not be able to fear all that an adult does, a loud noise can startle a baby into crying in a fit of fear.  An older person in the throws of dementia, who cannot speak, can still communicate being frightened manifested in trembling, turning away, avoidance behaviors, and even screaming and fighting.

We were made to sense and experience fear.  Hence, experiencing it does not automatically mean we are forfeiting grace.  No, it is not fear itself that is the problem.  It is when the fear is worthless.  When it has no real value other than to torment.  Or when it has surpassed its estimation and exploded into something it is not.

But there is something else that escalates the issue of worthless fears, and that is how we handle them.

Looking at Jonah 2:8, it would be wise to note that grace wasn’t forfeited just because a fear was experienced.  In fact, the mere experience of it might actually bring forward the gift of grace to strengthen and encourage in a time when life is, or should be because of the circumstances, frightening.

The hitch can lie in what we do with it.  You see, in Jonah 2:8, we are told “those who cling…”  Not just have.  Not merely experience.  Rather it is the clinging to worthless idols that develops into a problem for us.  To understand this better, let’s take a look at the definition of cling:

“To adhere closely; stick to; to hold tight, as by grasping or embracing; cleave; to be or remain close; to remain attached to; to cohere.”  www.dictionary.com

Digging into it a little more, let’s explore cohere:

“To stick together; be united; hold fast, as parts of the same mass; to be naturally or logically connected; to agree.”  Id.

So if we have a worthless fear, can you now see how devastating it becomes when we cling to that fear?  How we inhibit living a life that could be filled with grace at the sake of embracing and remaining connected to a fear that has no real value?  Note this as a picture, how can your arms be open to receiving grace when they are tightly wound around a fear that should not be in that space?

Can you further see how it gains more and more control leading to more and more grace being forfeited?  We pull these worthless fears closer and embrace them as if they are truth rather than falsehood. We stick tight to the restrictions those fears rehearse to us, sadly believing that they are the same mass as us–that they are a part of us, when they don’t have to be. Further, we try to logically connect more things to these fears in an attempt to increase their validity, and so that their influence only grows…while our faith in God, and His beautiful design of us, begins to shrink in their almighty shadows.

Too many of us are not only inhibited by fears that truly have little worth, but we allow our fears to remain close to us throughout the day.  We rarely leave them behind.  Worse yet, we accept them as if we have to be united to them rather than understanding it is a choice to choose them over grace, over God and His desires for us.  Might it be ourselves that hold fast to these fears, rather than loosening our grip on their influence, as most of us refer to our fears as if we have no other option?

While Jonah 2:8 beckons us to examine our fears and discern what ones have worth and what ones don’t, we also need to take a step back from them.   Note what ones you feel there is no hope of letting go, what ones seem justifiable despite an honest evaluation…as those, my friends, might just be the ones you are clinging to.  Here are some clues and justifications that can tip you off to the ones you might be latched on to (look for when you might be doing this towards a fear or a circumstance that gives rise to one):

clasp, cherish, continue, endure, freeze to, grip, hang in, hang onto, last, hug, linger, stay put, stick like glue; agree, associate, be devoted to, be tight with, be true…inseparability, intelligibility.

Note that your desire, to stick with your worthless fears, will go to great lengths to give you intelligent reasons for why withdrawing from those fears isn’t in your best interest. Clinging will occur when you insist on continuing with them, enduring their grip, freezing in the presence of a reminder of them, agreeing to their presence when it is not necessary, hanging on to the original reason that gave birth to them, be devoted to fighting for their existence by looking for any reason to support them being able to linger.

Because you will need to do the opposite to overcome your hold on them, it might be helpful to know about the antonyms to cling.  Let these antonyms inspire you to loosen your grip:

detach, let go, unfasten, divide, separate, disagreement, incoherence, incongruity, nonsense, unintelligibility

Understand that becoming unfastened or detached from these worthless fears is a necessary step in finding the fullness of God’s grace.  That may mean you have to let go of controlling your surroundings to prevent what you fear, and that may mean allowing more risk to exist.  It may give rise to disagreement within yourself as fear doesn’t usually like to dwell with peace and truth; it needs you to feel insecure about something.  Know that your steps and action plans might not be as harmonious as you would like.  You may even find things to be inconsistent or out of place.  Some of it may seem like nonsense; may even be unintelligible to what you have always known or what others have always known from you.

I often tell this story to those who now visit our home.  In our first house, everything had a place and it was very tidy.  When we moved to our second home, I kept up the same routine but had more house to clean and bigger dust piles that took a lot more time.  In fact, in kindergarten, when asked what his mom did, my son said, “Clean.”

As I began to walk more closely with God, I felt a gentle nudge to let go of that rigidity. While order and cleanliness have a valid place in life, my routine was more personally motivated than that and directly tied to an inward fear that I had long embraced. Over the years, I have come to accept a much less rigid standard resulting in more internal peace and more time with those I love.  In fact, I don’t chase the dust bunnies quite the way I used to.  I often wait for them to become dust bears.  Consequently I am not afraid, though I don’t necessarily like, when others see them peeking out from under our benches or tables.

Moreover, as this change began in me and I learned to let go of the fear I was clinging to, I found those driven by it in their own worlds scratching their heads and not understanding. It just didn’t make sense to them, and I learned to be okay with that.  It was when I unfastened myself from that fear and those rigid standards that I began to experience a new grace I had not known.  Dare I say, so did others in our household.

Yes, it will be hard work but finding the grace that is meant for you will only come when you stop clinging to those worthless fears you hold so tight.

Trust me, you can do it…

“In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.”  Isaiah 10:20