Fear of the Unknown

John 17:3 (ESV)

^“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

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I have been getting a lot of questions from people about what’s going to happen with relation to the pandemic.  “Have you heard anything Pastor?”  “Do you know when we will be able to come back to church?”  I have also been hearing a lot of worry.  “Will I have a job?  “What’s going to happen to my job?”  “Will the economy come back?”  “Will the virus come back when we reopen?”  What’s going to happen in the Fall?  Will we go through all this again?”  People are having a hard time planning for the future.  “Will the schools have any kind of graduation?”  “What about all the church activities we had planned for the summer – can we still have them?  Should we postpone?  Will we have to cancel?”    Linda and I were supposed to go on our first cruise in June.  That’s been cancelled.  We have rescheduled for next year.  But what about this year?  Is it safe to plan travel or vacation for this summer?  When will it be safe? 

The list of questions goes on and on.  They all, it seems to me, to have one thing in common – the fear of the unknown.  The truth is that there is always a lot we don’t know.  We never really know what the future holds.  In fact, the sum of what you and I don’t know would overflow all the libraries in the world.  Most of the time, however, we can ignore what we don’t know.  We are able to operate on the assumption that we kind of know what’s going to happen.  The COVID 19 pandemic, has stripped away that fallacy.  We really don’t know… we never know what the future holds.  That is behind much of the worry and fear you and I are experiencing.

What do we do?  How do I answer all these questions when I don’t know anymore than anyone else what the future holds?  For me there is only one answer – to point people to what we do know.  Believe it or not, there is great comfort in what we do know.  After all, the most important thing we do know is a not a thing.  We know is a person who can handle all the unknown.  We know God.  Just listen to John 17:3 - “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  This comes from the High Priestly prayer of Jesus.  He prayed that you and I would know God.  And in fact, because we know Jesus, we know God.  In meeting Jesus we have in fact met God Himself.  John 1:18 - No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side (that’s Jesus), he has made him known.  

Why is this so important?  Because to know God in Jesus Christ, as Jesus promised, is eternal life.  In other words, when you know God in Christ your future is secure… forever.  Knowing God in Christ is the one thing that takes away the fear of the unknown.  Think about what we know about God because of Jesus.  We know that God loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son. Whatever happens in the future – it can not change that fact.  Indeed, because we know Jesus, we live in the confidence that no matter what happens God is working all things together for our good.  We know that if God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, God will along with Jesus freely give us all things.  Because we know Jesus, we know that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  After all even death could not conquer Jesus. He rose again.  In Jesus Christ, we know that there is nothing in the past, present or future… nothing in all creation that separate us from God’s love.

This is something you have heard me say again and again.  Knowing God in Christ is way better than knowing the future.  After all, in Jesus we know the One who holds our future and that He loves us.    That’s what He has told us about the future.  He has it in His loving, powerful, nail scared, resurrected hands.  He has promised us, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”   This is the best cure… the only cure for the fear of the unknown – to focus on the God you know in Christ… the God who loves you with an everlasting love.  We may not know what exactly His plans are… but we need not worry because by His grace in Jesus, we know Him.  Amen.