Dear Christian, Its okay to be a scared wuss.

"Dad, can you please leave the night light on cause I’m a little scared?"

I couldn’t believe my daughter said that to me on one of her first nights in her new home.

"Seriously?!?!. You’re 12 and we have 2 huge dogs. What in the world are you scared about? You KNOW nothing will happen. Now shut up, go to bed and stop being such a baby..."

What would you think of me if I actually said that to my daughter?

Let me guess. Horrible dad? Yes! Horrible, terrible, insensitive dad.

But of course I didn’t say that. You know what I did instead?

I hugged her, held her and comforted her. We bought a night light. And I assured her that she was protected.

Even though I knew that was nothing to be afraid of, I didn’t demean or mock her fear because I saw it as an opportunity to show her my love.

Her fear was a window for me to be dad and ‘father’ her. 

I assume this makes sense to everyone reading this but for some reason it doesn’t translate when it comes to God.

Most of us rarely share our fears with God and people because we think we are stupid for having those fears. Who think God might say:

"Seriously? You’ve been a Christian for 5 years and you’ve seen how much I’ve done for you.
How can you be afraid of being single forever? How can you be afraid of being a failure or money or school grades?
What are you an idiot? Have faith and stop being a baby..."

I know that seems a little outlandish but to be perfectly honest, its so much easier for me to see God responding to my fear like that than it is for me to picture God seeing my fear as an opportunity to ‘daddy’ me.

‘Get over it’ or ‘grow up’ feels more normal than ‘Son, I know you’re scared. Its okay. Why don’t you come rest with me’

The only conclusions I can draw from that is, I’m either a better daddy than Jesus is to us or I’m way off.

I’m just gonna go ahead and humbly claim the later. I’m way off.

My heavenly daddy wants to show me his love, security and greatness and today I’m gonna let him.
I’m gonna leverage my fear for his embrace.

Below are my 3 greatest fears.

1. I fear getting really sick or dying.
2. I fear living a wasted life more.
3. I feel losing a loved one the most.

What about you? Do you have a hard time picturing God as the kind of father who wants to hug you when you're scared? Any thoughts on why?

I believe that God is inviting us today to honestly share our fears with him regardless of how 'silly' they might seem. He's our dad. Its okay. And oh, by the way, he already knows.

What are your greatest fears?

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