Faith vs Fear

There’s a story I heard when I was younger. I can’t quite remember where I heard it or who told it to me, but the story itself stuck with me. It goes something like this:

There was a young boy struggling with a moral decision, so he went to his grandfather for advice. The old man sat quietly while he listened to his grandson’s problem. After a few moments, the man spoke. “My son, there is a battle between two lions inside us all. One is good, just, and kind. The other is evil, selfish, and greedy.”

The boy was perplexed by the response. After thinking it over, he asked, “Grandfather, which lion wins the battle?” The old man turned toward the boy and quietly responded, “The one you feed.”

None of us are perfect, and we all have battles raging inside us. In my own life, there is one particular battle that happens in my mind. It has been there in some form or another as long as I can remember. It’s a territorial dispute of sorts over an area of my life. Let’s call that area “Control.”

As a Christian, I believe that God has the ultimate authority and control over my life. And yet, I find myself constantly fighting him for control. This is especially true for me when I am dealing with fear, particularly the fear of uncertainty. When I am afraid, I have a tendency to try to tightly control the situation. Somehow I think I can limit the fear, or at the very least, I can lessen its impact. Usually, I accomplish this by trying to avoid whatever situation is causing the fear. I run from it, and I hide. It’s a defense mechanism I’ve built up over a very long time.

Life can be wonderful and filled with love and laughter. But it is also difficult, hard, and painful at times. Somewhere along the way, I decided that the best plan to avoid the bad days was to hide from them. Why risk feeling the pain at all? If I didn’t put myself out there, I couldn’t hurt. But this led me to an entirely different problem. Without the risk, there could be no reward. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. By hiding from the bad, I was also hiding from the good that could have been there too. My fear and uncertainty led me to try to control and manage my life. But in a way, it often kept me from actually living my life. 

When it comes to the control of my life, I think there is actually two ends of the spectrum. One is fear, and how I let the fear guide me. But on the opposite side of that is something marvelous and miraculous: Faith.

When I stop giving into fear, I allow faith to take over. Faith that God is in control. Faith that God knows better than I do. Faith that even if the road ahead is hard or painful, that God has the strength to get me through it. Faith that He has a plan and good things in store for me. Fear brought me anxiety, confusion, and anguish. But faith gives me peace, joy, and hope. 

For me, the choice between fear and faith is ongoing. I need to choose fresh every day to not live in fear. And some days, I handle it better than others. But it is a daily choice to let go of the control and to simply trust God. 

When fear, anxiety, and uncertainty starts to overwhelm me, I have to remind myself that God didn’t give me those feelings. Those came from the enemy. The Bible describes the devil as a “roaring lion seeking whom he can devour.” Jesus, on the other hand, is the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” and is “the author and finisher of our faith”.

Which lion are you feeding?