Antidote to Fear

The news that continually breaks upon us would unsettle the lives of all of us if we would let it. We are daily exposed to report and counterreport, to opinion and counteropinion, to accusation and denial, alarm, mistrust, duplicity, and uncertainty, both from near and far placesall of which turn our thoughts again to a phrase from the Psalms: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.”4 But, unfortunately, we are afraid of “evil tidings.” Unfortunately, the peace within us is often shaken by the tragedy, the contradiction, the conflict, the clamor. Unfortunately, the peace within us is often shaken by the tragedy, the contradiction, the conflict, the clamor. Unfortunately, there are times when our waking hours are shadowed by fear, when sleep is made restless by fear, and when dreams are colored and fashioned by the fear of evil tidings. But, fortunately, there are ways of casting out many of our fears, and one way is not to leave room for them in our lives. It is usually the vacant house that acquires a reputation for being haunted. And it is perhaps equally true that the more vacant our lives are, the more likely they are to be haunted by fears. The idle man has more room for his fears, more time to feed and indulge them, than has he whose life is filled with good works. As one antidote to fear, then, suppose that as individuals and as a nation we get down to real work, and rediscover the peace and joy of giving our full energies to the creation of good and useful things. There is another antidote to fear, and that is faithand any man can have it if he wants it and lives for it: faith in the personal reality of a living God whose glorious purposes will be accomplished, no matter what our fears are and no mater who would have it otherwise. God lives and all men are His children. And life isn’t going to cease here or hereafter merely because of the willfulness or the stupidity of some men. And the sooner we fill our lives with faith and work, the sooner we shall be free from needless fears.