“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
―Plato
When Rob was in seminary, his professor Dan Allender is from whom I first heard the concept of dignity and depravity. Dignity acknowledges we are created in the image of God. Depravity recognizes sinfulness. We need to know both are true about who we are.
Sometimes fear keeps from acknowledging we have failures and shortcomings. For many of us that is easier to embrace and more often fear tells us that depravity is our only identity. Those are the times we are afraid of the light, of the value and worth God has placed in us.
To have vision for not letting fear control our decisions and words means embracing both. It invites grief and celebration. It is the place we see beauty from ashes and freedom for the captives. We experience comfort for those who mourn. We take on a garment of praise rather than a spirit of despair. The lame leap, the blind see, the fearful heart becomes brave. Mute tongues shout for joy and the best news of all, sorrow and sighing flee. (Isaiah 35 and 61 excerpts)
That is the vision for no fear. For freedom, for redemption, for purpose.
The dictionary lists the following as some antonyms for fear- Assurance, Calm, Confidence, Faith, Contentment, Encouragement, Ease. Those seem like some good vision words too.
Holding on to vision, to what life in the Kingdom of God is and can be. It is the vision that gives us confidence to keep going. It gives us glimpses of God moving and acting. It brings our hearts alive, leaving behind gray and coming into vibrancy. It is real and we fix our eyes there as we run this race marked out before us.
One of the best illustrations of what this could look like, is captured in this video. It was put together by Matt Dreher. He is on staff at our church and is amazingly talented at taking a concept and bringing it to life. He has vision. (You can see more here, Bonniebrook Films)
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I’ve always loved the hymn “Be Thou My Vision”–now I know why! It’s because when I sing it, I sense the prayer for God to take away my fear by replacing my faulty sight with his vision.
Wow, what a great video and post. I needed this today!
What a great post, Melanie! (and then you wrap it up with that video! Just wow! So powerful!)
So, I was playing this video when my daughter IMed me from Guatemala where she has been for only 2 weeks. She’s learning Spanish, teaching English and is just completely overwhelmed and I was talking to her about being brave, and reminding her that God is there with her, even though she feels lonely. And THiS, this is what was playing. So I played it again. It’s a God thing. Thanks!