Whack That Mole! Umm... I Mean, Fear!

What a little Latin phrase, a double portion of a communion wafer, and a childhood game can teach us about our great enemy, fear.

Yesterday morning at church I received two wafers in my little pre-made communion cup. Two!

I am not sure if you know the kind. They are a time-saving (and some say healthier) measure some churches use. You pick up the plastic communion cup — on one side is the wafer; flip it over, however, and you get the juice.

I must need an extra measure of God’s grace, I thought, as I opened that cup!

No one needs to tell me that I am a work in progress, but every so often God needs to remind me to take a few extra minutes to trust him with life. “You need twice as much of me today, Laurie,” he says.

Yes, yes, I do. Some days are just like that.

Forget days; perhaps your entire life feels like that.

The closest imagery I can muster these days of my life is that of whack-a-mole. Remember this game? You quickly and repeatedly hit the heads of mechanical moles with a mallet as they pop up from holes.

This transferrable imagery looks like my life today. One problem pops up — wham! Another problem — wham! Another — wham! The first one reappears — wham!

And so I come to communion haggard and stressed, and God gives me twice of himself.

Do Not Be Afraid? Really?

Noli timere is a Latin phrase I read about years ago that has never left my memory. It means “Do not be afraid.” In the Vulgate version of the Bible, translated by Saint Jerome, the phrase appears 70 times, and often it comes from either God or angels (see Isaiah 43:5 and Matthew 17:7, for instance):

“Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.”

“But Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Don’t be afraid.’”

I am afraid more than I’d like to admit. I am afraid for our kids as they are growing up, for my health and the health of those I love as we all get older, and for our world. So I play whack-a-mole, trying to keep my fears at bay. And then someone says that fear is not of God. And I agree. But someone else says that fear is a sin and that it demonstrates a lack of faith in God. And I don’t agree.

Last week I shared author Louise Penny’s words:

“When someone stabs you, it's not your fault that you feel pain.”

Similarly, when bad things happen, it’s not our fault that we become fearful.

Sure, fear is not of God, but we feel it nonetheless. And sometimes in our fear, we don’t respond well.

Poor Peter. He knew this, too.

In Luke 22: 54-62, after Jesus is arrested and taken away, we find Peter so overcome with his fear that he is unable to make the right decision:

“Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, ‘This man was with him.’

But he denied it. ‘Woman, I don’t know him,’ he said.

A little later someone else saw him and said, ‘You also are one of them.’

‘Man, I am not!’ Peter replied.

 About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

 Peter replied, ‘Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.”

All of us need two communion wafers sometimes. All of us have experienced fear getting the better of us.

Noli timere is an amazing phrase not only because it sounds lovely in Latin, but also because it grounds us in the character of God.

One of my favorite places this phrase appears in the Bible is in Joshua 1:9:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

I bolded my important point here.

The entire reason we can recenter ourselves when we are afraid is because God is with us. Yes, Peter wept bitterly after denying Jesus three times, but then he was able to dust himself off, get up, and get to following Jesus again. Because one stumble wasn’t enough to change how Jesus felt about him. Peter, of course, and the bumbling band of disciples would later go on to change the world.

You Have a Few Options Here…

I cannot say what your whack-a-mole is today and what fears and stresses you are trying to keep at bay. But maybe today you can put a little less force in that mallet as you crush that mole. Maybe you can allow its ugliness to be exposed to the light a bit longer. Maybe as you do this, God will meet you in that fear.

Let me give you two options:

Option #1

• Mole (read: the situation that causes you fear and stress) pops up.

• Your heart races, you get worried, and you quickly plan to deal with the terrible situation as quickly as possible.

• You raise the mallet to temper the situation. You will go binge Netflix! You will Google everything you can. You will circle the wagon of worry.

• You slam the mole back into place, content that it is dealt with for the moment.

OR

Option #2

• Mole (read: the situation that causes you fear and stress) pops up.

• Your heart races, you get worried, and you quickly plan to deal with the terrible situation as quickly as possible.

• You consider which mallet to use to temper the situation. Netflix? Googling? Continual worry?

• You put the mallet down and stare at the mole long and hard.

• And then you pray and you ask God for a better way of dealing with this hard situation. Prayer? Call a friend to talk? Take a walk and wander around? Sing with all your heart? Open up the Bible?

Darkness cannot survive when exposed to the light. It’s not possible. Similarly, fear cannot survive for long when exposed to the faithfulness of God and his gentle presence.

An Attempt to Sum This Up

Jesus might never have returned to Peter after his denials. But he did because that’s who he is. “…for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Similarly, we might think that Jesus will leave us when we mess up or when we let fear linger too long. But he won’t, and actually, he can’t. It’s not in his nature and never will be.

I’ll be honest, whack-a-mole isn’t nearly as fun as I remember it when it looks similar to my life. Dozens of whacks in a day doesn’t make me feel like I am winning. It makes me feel tired.

And I don’t think I am alone.

When moles pop up in your life, don’t lift that mallet too quickly. Let the bad thing be exposed to God’s presence, faithfulness, and love for a little bit longer.

Much love to you,

💚 Laurie

(P.S. Because fear isn’t my only problem, next time I will talk about the dreaded Comparison Theory and my response after a friend posted on social media that he has led thousands of people to Jesus on TikTok!)