CURING TIMIDITY

During the past week, the lectionary gave us one of my favorite New Testament passages:

"For this reason I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God, that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and self control."

Here Paul is contrasting the spirit of cowardice with three qualities of the spirit that have helped me to respond more courageously to the problems and challenges of life. Each of them -- power, love, and self-control – can be a help in dealing with my anxiety.

The first attitude that can help me overcome the spirit of fear, according to Paul, is the spirit of power. Here the crucial question is this, "In this situation, whose power will I automatically rely on? My own or God's?" In the very next verse, Paul offers an alternative to this approach: "relying on the power of God, who saved us"(v.8). If the power I rely on is not my own but God's, then everything changes, because "I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). No matter how much time and effort I spend on a task, ultimately it all depends on the Lord.

The second characteristic that helps me to conquer cowardice is the spirit of love. John tells us "there is no fear in love (1 John 4:18)". A mother's love makes her capable of heroic actions to save her child from danger, even at the risk of her own life. Contrast this with the spirit of self-centeredness, which practically guarantees that everyone and everything will be seen as posing some sort of threat to me. In 1972, our small community of monks was taking a leap in the dark by planning to open a school in the midst of tremendous uncertainty. If our little group had felt a need to be in control of everything, then we would've had to live in constant fear that events might get beyond our power, or that our plans would be foiled. But our shared sufferings in frequent meetings and informal conversations had created a bond of caring for one another, making the spirit of love a reality in our lives. Because of this intense sense of community, any fears about what might happen to our plans and projects were much easier to handle. I know this was certainly true for me.

Our passage from second Timothy offers a third quality for countering fear: self-control. If I let myself be controlled by my emotions, so that I am always flying off in one direction and then another, then I will be insecure, unsure of my ground, and thus afraid of what may be lurking around the next turn in the road.

Many times over the years I have relied on this passage from second Timothy, with its list of three antidote to timidity and fear. I hope you may find the passage as useful as I still do!