I just got back from a lovely trip to New Zealand, and, it’s not that I want to make you jealous, but did you know that it is summer in January in NZ? It’s not hot sticky summer, like Indiana; it’s balmy, with a gentle ocean breeze, and an occasional rain that is here and gone before it dampens your day. And I know that New Zealand winters are better than Indiana winters. That doesn’t even need to be explained. It’s not hard for me to imagine that NZ winters are even better than Indiana summers! And, get this, there are almost no bugs! No tics to give you that latest fearsome virus, and even though somebody said there are mosquitos, I didn’t see any. So, mosquito borne viruses are probably not even a thing. No giant man-eating crocodiles. No bear (my wife is glad to know this). No big dangerous cats or wolves to hunt you down while you are out on a nature hike. For those of us who stay away from the great outdoors because of nightmares about “the worst that could happen,” this seems like the perfect place. I do not underestimate the power of nightmares (I’m pretty sure I am always suppressing a nightmare about being chased by a large dangerous animal of one kind or another. That is why I refuse to watch any of the Jurassic Park movies). Please don’t tell me that I am overestimating the danger of being eaten by large animals. That is not the point. The point is that it is possible. Oh, yes, and I went snorkeling. Granted, it was only for a few minutes, but this is a great victory for someone whose motto has always been, “Nobody ever got eaten by a shark while standing on dry land” (original SNL skits, notwithstanding).
But no place left on this earth is the Garden of Eden, so there have to be some counter-arguments against New Zealand. For those of us who are looking, there is always something to fear. So, here is my short list. First of all, it is a fifteen hour flight from Houston, Texas to Auckland, New Zealand. That is a lot of time to be cramped into the window seat, wishing you didn’t have to disturb your neighbors again to get up and visit the restroom, or to just walk around a little, for heaven’s sake. It is also a long time to think about being 40,000 feet in the air, about the law of gravity, the miracle of flight, the reliability of the aircraft, the crew, the mechanics, and about the outside temperature of roughly seventy degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. I’ve observed that the older you get, the more you are aware of what can go wrong. My brothers and I were on the plane, getting ready to fly from Harrisburg, PA to Chicago, IL, to visit Grandma. We were kids, and we were excited. It was going to be our first plane ride. We were practically jumping out of our seats. And then I looked for my mom in the seat behind us. She was gripping the armrests so tightly, I thought she would break them off. With a panicked look on her face, she said, “Don’t move.”
Second on my short list is a related thought, I guess. New Zealand is 1,000 miles east of Australia. There are closer places, but they are all smaller islands. The country’s main land mass of two islands are almost 1,000 miles long and about 250 miles wide, at their broadest point. That is actually much larger than this ignorant American thought, but my initial, admittedly emotional, reaction, owing more to my perceived isolation than to its size, was claustrophobia. I could stand on the waters of opposite shores easily in a single day (and I did!). The people of New Zealand did not appear to be at all bothered by this (the wonderful people I met seemed fearless, especially when driving!). It’s not like you could see both shores of the North Island from a single viewing point (although, technically, I guess, you could). Was I bothered by this? Not really, but I was only there for two weeks. It is easy to imagine the whole place washed over by a tsunami. My host assured me that NZ was practically tsunami proof, however. I know this is purely an American perspective. When I explained to American friends how diverse New Zealand was in culture, the initial reaction was, “How did all those people get there?” Even I had to laugh at that.
Last on my short list of things to fear in New Zealand: volcanoes. The whole topography of the North Island, at least (which is where I was), was dominated by volcanoes. The landscape is completely unique. Steep hills, jutting out from each other, and sticking up in the oddest and most dramatic places is the best way I can describe it. It’s nothing like anywhere in the States. Crazy steep bowl shaped depressions were the main feature of the many volcanoes (there are 48 in Auckland, alone). As often as not, the depressions were grazing places for sheep and even cows. To me, despite the grazing of animals, the volcanoes are an ever-present reminder of danger. After all, if they blew up once; they can blow up again.
I hope you know by now that I am just pulling your leg about the fear (mostly). Some of you are familiar with fear and how it can ruin even the best things. Instead of celebrating all that is going right, we worry about all that could go wrong. We find danger in the dark, danger around the corner, and danger in the lane beside us. We are afraid that people are judging us, laughing at us, or angry with us. Where did all the fear come from? ! John 4:18 says, “Fear has to do with punishment.” In other words the source of fear is the dread of upcoming punishment. There is a healthy fear, I know, and it keeps you from doing truly dangerous things. That is a gift from God, installed in your body to keep you safe. But there is a truly dangerous fear that keeps you from doing healthy things. When I was a kid I had a recurring dream of showing up for class in my underwear. There I was, in my dream, standing in front of all of my elementary school classmates, and I had somehow forgotten to put on pants and a shirt. The dream made no sense, but the pain I felt over it was real. I found out later that this is a common dream, and it is remarkably similar to mankind’s first experience of fear.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” (Gen. 3:7-9)
Why did Adam and Eve hide themselves from God? Adam said that they were afraid because they were naked. Why did they notice, now, that they were naked, and not before? It is often said that, before eating the forbidden fruit, they were clothed with the righteousness of God. What I think that means is that nakedness wasn’t an issue, because they were not conscious of any reason to cover themselves. They were perfectly made. They were in unveiled communion with God. Why would they hide from anything or fear anything if their Creator was also their Companion? I will save a discussion of the two trees for later. The point is that it was the knowledge of impending judgment that caused them to realize they were naked. So, the source of all fear is the knowledge of impending judgment. You may say, “No, I fear death. I fear pain.” But you would not fear either death or pain if you were not conscious of sin. In other words, if your fellowship with God was completely unhindered there would be no reason to fear, because God is perfect love. Just like the Bible says, “(God’s) perfect love casts out fear.” Would Adam and Eve have had any reason to fear dangerous animals, or 40,000 foot heights, or even erupting volcanoes before they fell? No.
I have demonstrated that the knowledge of impending judgement is the ultimate source of fear. We call that “condemnation.” Condemnation is everywhere. If something bad happens to you or someone you love, what is often the first thought that comes to mind? Isn’t it, “God is punishing me?” If something good happens, how often do you think, “Don’t get too excited. It won’t last?” Don’t you often sabotage your own hopes with the feeling that you don’t deserve good things? I’ve shown you that fear comes from condemnation (the sense of impending judgment). Now, I’m going to show you where fear leads, and I think you will be amazed. Let's look at what God says to Adam:
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.” (Gen. 3:17-19)
This is “the curse.” It is a death sentence pronounced on man as a result of the original sin. But there is more to it. God said, “In toil you will eat.” The Hebrew word translated “toil” comes from a root that means “to displease, grieve, or hurt. It means wearisomeness, pain, and vexation. Later when God says, “By the sweat of your face,” you might be surprised to know that the word translated “face” also means “anger.” God is describing stress that leads to death.
In Genesis 3 we see that condemnation leads to fear which leads to stress. But does stress really lead to death? There is a lot of scientific information out there that says it does, but maybe not in the way you might think. Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist, gave a (now famous) Ted Talk a few years ago, that referred to a study of the long term effects of stress on a large population. In short, the researchers asked thousands of people over a number of years about the stresses in their lives. From the questions, they determined which ones fit a fixed definition of stress, and which ones did not. Then they simply consulted the death records to see who died prematurely. What they recorded was a significant relationship between stress and premature death, with a notable exception. It turned out that stress was a significant factor only if the person believed the stress they were under was bad for them. If they saw the stress as not bad for them there was no difference from the non-stressed group! In the eight years of the study, there were 182,000 premature deaths from the “stress is bad for me” group. That is amazing! Now I want to broaden your view of stress a little more.
Medical science is beginning to come to grips with the overwhelming evidence that chronic inflammation is the cause of many diseases, some of which we did not previously understand, and some that we used to think had purely hereditary causes. Auto-immune diseases, asthma, and even cancer are just a few that have been named. In fact, there are some who believe that every disease is ultimately caused by chronic inflammation. How is this possible? Think in terms of one ultimate cause, resulting in different manifestations, depending on the specific weakness in a person’s body. You can go look up chronic inflammation; I am not going to explain it, other than to say it is caused by stress. Some of the stressors are repetitive trauma, habitual poor eating habits, poor sleep habits, and most importantly, poor thinking habits. Ask yourself, how can two people, with the same ancestors, get vastly different health results? Up until now, science has mostly been asking why people get various diseases. Perhaps, we should be asking why some people do not. You say, “What about hereditary diseases that come straight from a person’s DNA?” Think of a gene mutation that causes a defect or disease as the result of inflammation that affected the DNA of an ancestor. Am I blaming people for getting diseases? Absolutely not! I am saying that we all share in the death sentence of Adam’s sin, just in different ways. And I am saying that death and disease did not come to the earth because God “zapped” us. They came as a result of fear and condemnation. I don’t have the room to make a full case for this, but I hope I can get you to think about it and, maybe, research it for yourself. So many people are afraid to believe that Jesus makes a difference in their health. “Experience” seems to tell them otherwise. The last thing people need is more condemnation piled on them, because they supposedly “didn’t have enough faith to be healed.” But we already know that what you believe makes a difference in your health. The study that Kelly McGonigal referred to proves it (if you needed more proof). I want to leave you with one Bible verse:
“He that has the Son, has life.” (1 John 5:12)
Even Strong’s Concordance defines “life” (Greek: “zoe”), here, as both physical and spiritual. You don’t have to believe harder. Just set your eyes on Jesus, and don’t be afraid.