This past Saturday, me and my family decided to go on a short drive in hopes of spending some quality time together. In addition to spending time together, we also stumbled upon a few unknown “little shops” that allowed us to explore their contents. I found a table full of historic patents that were framed. One frame contained a patent of a jet airplane and a Star Wars figure. The patents included sketches and identification numbers. I doubt these framed documents were “original” but they sure looked like it. Another discovery yielded a framed phrase that simply said, “What have we found? The same old fears…wish you were here.” I am not sure of the origin or purpose of such a quote and why it was included with the other framed items. But, the phrase captured my attention. Not so much because of its uniqueness but more about the words, “the same old fears.” This past Saturday, me and my family decided to go on a short drive in hopes of spending some quality time together. In addition to spending time together, we also stumbled upon a few unknown “little shops” that allowed us to explore their contents. I found a table full of historic patents that were framed. One frame contained a patent of a jet airplane and a Star Wars figure. The patents included sketches and identification numbers. I doubt these framed documents were “original” but they sure looked like it. Another discovery yielded a framed phrase that simply said, “What have we found? The same old fears…wish you were here.” I am not sure of the origin or purpose of such a quote and why it was included with the other framed items. But, the phrase captured my attention. Not so much because of its uniqueness but more about the words, “the same old fears.”
Could we look back on our life and see what has dominated our thinking or mind? I am sure we can probably boil down the things that worry us today are probably similar to the things that occupied our minds 10, 15, or 20 years ago! So, what’s the answer? What’s the antidote? Stop caring, stop being concerned, or focused on dealing with challenges that lie in our way? No! Paul was dealing with a pattern of challenges in Second Corinthians. Paul wrote this letter to express his thanksgiving for the repentant majority and to appeal to the rebellious minority to accept his authority. 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 says But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.
Throughout the book, he defends his conduct, and character as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul had to deal with “the same old fears” over and over. Like Paul, when we feel pressure, worry, and the weight of life, may we turn our fears into a fortified future! Let’s move away from a pattern of fear and to a future built on Christ.
