Exodus 14:10-12 As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

I don’t often write about sports because I know that most people do not have as much of an interest in them as do I. For example, when I go to a Super Bowl party I find most people talk, and only a few watch the game. I ask you to bear with me. The other night I was able to watch the second half of a National Basketball Association playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs were
winning by ten points with about five minutes to go in the game. With about one minute to go the Lakers had cut the lead to two points. You could see fear in the body language of every player on the Spurs team. The result? Los Angeles won the game by two points on a shot by Kobe Bryant with three seconds left in the game.

As I think about what I saw in the Spurs, I have to ask myself, “Where do I act out of fear and lose the goal for which I am striving?” As we can see from Exodus 14, nearly an entire nation was willing to return to slavery because of fear. They almost lost their goal of freedom. As you follow their story you find numerous times they make decisions out of fear. The results were disastrous. I would suggest that what is happening today
between Israel and Palestine is at best an indirect result of Israel making decisions based on fear.

I am aware of a person in another region who is creating all kinds of problems in his congregation because a decision was made without his being consulted. He has lost some of the control he has had in the past with that congregation. He fears being out of control. I wonder what has happened in his past that creates so much fear that control is the most important thing. At best what is happening in that church today is an indirect result of fear in the lives of persons in that congregation.

Although the last example may be a little extreme, it is not foreign to any of us. All of us like to be informed, at the very least. What fear resides in us that we are unable to trust the decisions of others in congregational life? Is God only able to work through the church as long as I am involved and in the “know?” What fears cause me to distrust the decisions of my family members? When am I going through the motions, as with the
San Antonio Spurs, only to fall short of the goal? Jesus said it another way. “Have faith to move this mountain.” If there is even a split second of doubt that it can be done, fear has taken control.

There is a better way. When my actions illustrate that fear is in control, regroup and find a more effective way. The Israelites did. And they made it across the Red Sea. Will you and I?

Dawn Breaker #60:  When my actions illustrate that fear is in control, regroup and find a more effective way.