Fear motivates us to respond in one of four ways. Sometimes, we freeze and are unable to move. Other times, we run away. Occasionally, we move aggressively toward the source of our fear. Last, we may try to appease the source of our fear.
Psychologists refer to these four types of responses as fight, flight, freeze, and fawn.
God created fear as an emotion to protect us from harm. While there are times when fear is an appropriate response to a threat, God also gave us the ability to reason, assess the danger rationally, and choose an appropriate response.
When we don’t assess our fear rationally, we’re prone to making snap judgments with undesirable consequences.
Fear is a common human experience, and fear’s effectiveness at motivating action is well known. This explains why people seeking power often use fear to motivate support for their ideas. Perhaps no politician has successfully utilized fear in our country to the degree of our current president.
Utilizing the tools of lies and partial truths used out of context, the majority of Americans fear an invasion of our homeland by immigrants. While it is true that thousands cross our borders without detection, our collective fear has made it possible for many of our federal programs to be dismantled with wreckless aggression.
People seek refuge in our country out of desperation and hope for a better future. We have a tremendous amount in common with them and share many of the same dreams.
In a beautifully written op-ed in the New York Times, South Vietnamese-born American novelist Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen challenges us to reconsider and reenergize our American dream. To do so, the professor calls for “renewing our commitment to the most marginalized Americans who are already here and welcoming the immigrants and refugees who regenerate us.”
Professor Nguyen shares his family’s experiences and introduces five stories about other families who immigrated to the U.S.
A harmful, irrational response to unmerited fear is nothing new. This week’s theme scripture for our series, Friends, reminds us of an earlier time when we feared contracting HIV/AIDS despite health professionals’ assurance that HIV could only be contracted through body fluids.
Taylor Peter posted an article about Ryan White on the website of the Children’s Miracles Network Hospitals. Ryan was a 13-year-old who contracted HIV/AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion. The young boy was “denied the ability to go to school, hang out with his friends, and live a relatively normal life because of a fearful and misinformed community.”
Ryan’s story helped spark a new understanding of HIV/AIDS. He stood up against bigotry with calls for compassion. Ryan lost his battle with the disease just months before he was to attend Indiana University.
The gospel writers share a story about Jesus intervening on behalf o f a skin disease patient. In episode six of the first season of The Chosen, we’re treated to a dramatic retelling of this story. The scene illustrates the fear that those who witnessed what Jesus did for the man likely felt.
If you want to, you can make me clean! Jesus reached out and touched him. Be clean! At once, the disease left the man.
Luke 5:12-16
We learned last week that Jesus chose to hang out with people that the majority didn’t approve of. Jesus has a way of bringing together people with diverse backgrounds and ideas. And in this week’s theme text, Jesus breaks through a barrier that created isolation as a result of fear.
In our devotional guide for this series, the authors remind us that those who were healthy longed for relief from Roman occupation and heavy taxation. Nevertheless, “they still got to go home after work, eat at their own table, and watch their children grow up.”
But the man with the skin disease was forced to live in isolation. Instead of moving away, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man, and he was healed of his disease.
Jesus was willing to see and touch a man who created fear for others. His future would be different than he ever imagined.
Jesus offers each of us a personal invitation to a relationship with God, others, and all of creation—a relationship not based on fear but built on love.
You can join us each Sunday in person or online by clicking the button on our website’s homepage. Click here to watch. This button takes you to our YouTube channel. You can find more information about us on our website at FlintAsburyChurch.org.
This is a reminder that we publish this newsletter called the Circuit Rider each week. You can request this publication by email. Send a request to FlintAsburyUMC@gmail.com or let us know when you send a message through our website. We post an archive of past editions on our website under Connect – choose Newsletters.
Pastor Tommy
Parts of our series are inspired by The Reverand Adam Hamilton’s series “The People Jesus Loved.” © Church of the Resurrection, 2025. Link. And by Amanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, and Dallas Jenkins. The Chosen: 40 Days with Jesus.© Savage, MN: BroadStreet Publishing, 2019.
Viet Thanh Nguyen. “From Here to Home.” © New York Times, Nov 19, 2019. Retrieved from: link
Taylor Peter, “A Boy Who Sparked a Movement: The Story of Ryan White.” © Children’s Miracles Network Hospitals, April 09, 2021. Retrieved from: link