[The following post is a response to and appreciation of a post I just read at https://pastorbrett.wordpress.com/2022/01/18/does-the-bible-really-say-fear-not-365-times/#:~:text=The%20two%20word%20combo%20%E2%80%9CFEAR,a%20far%20cry%20from%20365. Check it out!]

“2Tim. 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (English Standard Version)

I had a nightmare last night. I was about to give a lecture at some prestigious biblical studies conference. The room was packed. Someone walked up to me and said, “People don’t want to hear more about the Pentateuch.” Now, the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Bible—is where I’ve done most of my scholarly work. Genesis is especially one of my ongoing loves.

But because this one person came up to me and said what he said, I decided to scrap my lecture. I announced that I was just going to talk about scholarship in general. I had no idea what I was going to say. People immediately started leaving. At first, a few people trickled out. Then, the trickle became an avalanche. Soon, I was left in a large lecture hall by myself.

Now you know why I don’t sign up to do scholarly lectures.

So, this morning for my meditation time, I decided to meditate on fear. I have heard it said that there are 365 times in the Bible when it says, “Fear not!” I thought that was neat, but I was skeptical about it. I’ve learned to be wary of neatness. If you saw my sleeping and work area, you would say an immediate “Amen!”

To find out about this 365-thing, I did what all really good biblical scholars do: I googled it. Brett Maragni quickly disabused me of this statistical myth and confirmed my suspicions: The phrase “Fear not” occurs 71 times in the King James Version. However, as Maragni wisely notes, “. . . [H]ow many times does God have to say something for us to take it seriously? ONCE should be enough.”

He goes on to say, “So, I hate to bust the bubble of all the people who love posting on social media how awesome it is that there is exactly one “FEAR NOT” / “DO NOT FEAR” command for every day of the year, but at least now they won’t have to worry about what to do on the final day of a leap year! 🙂”

“ONCE should be enough!” Yes!

Not all dreams or nightmares seem significant to me, but I suspect that this one means something. Since I was little, I have been afraid that I have nothing worthwhile to offer others. If even one person criticized me or thought me less than perfect, I was a total failure. The nightmare suggests that fear persists.

But God does indeed say, “Fear not!” So, how am going to flesh out a fearless attitude today? I am going to do a bunch of simple, but worthwhile things.

• I am going to take the dog outside to do what she needs to do, give her a treat, and play with her for a little while.
• I am going to put away the dishes in the drainer before Sharon gets up.
• I am going to grade students’ papers.
• I am going to go for a long walk.
• I am going to text or call several 12-step friends.
• I am going to post this.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll even sign up to do a scholarly talk somewhere.

And one more thing, dear reader. The things you do may not seem all that important to you, but I suspect they are very important to others. “Fear not” may not be as common as you and I had hoped, but it’s still a good way to live our lives for the glory of God and the benefit of others. Perhaps if we all faced our fears of insignificance during the day and countered those fears with small worthwhile actions, we would sleep nightmare-free at night.