Justin Kelly, Ph.D., LPC

What do we do in the face of fear?  While some lose hope or abandon faith, others seem to weather the storm with a sense of confidence and resiliency.  A few weeks ago, I discovered my response to fear.  My twin daughter was sent to the NICU relatively quickly after she was born due to some respiratory complications that led to her developing pneumonia.  Shortly after her admit, a nurse practitioner walked us through what to expect and covered the things that could possibly go wrong.  They assured us that many babies often never experienced these complications.  For my daughter a number of things went wrong.

We received a call from the nurse overseeing my daughter's care at 6 am one morning.  She informed us that our daughters blood levels had dropped significantly since her last labs at 3 am, and that pending another set of labs, a blood transfusion would be necessary.  The nurse stated she feared that internal bleeding was causing the sudden and significant loss of blood.  This was my moment of fear.  Where is the internal bleeding?  Is she going to die?  A blood transfusion was the last check mark from that list of things that could go wrong.

Fear is a prominent theme in the first chapter of Jonah.  The focus of this post is not Jonah but rather the pagan sailors that Jonah briefly joined in his attempt to flee from God.  The sailors had encountered a storm so great that it threatened their physical safety (v. 4).  Each sailor was afraid and "cried out to his god."  The Hebrew word translated "afraid" in this passage is yârê.  The sailors were yârê (v. 5) at the beginning of the storm, and as the storm grew more violent they became exceedingly yârê (v. 10).  The sailors soon discovered that it was Jonah's fault they were in this storm.

When I heard my daughter might need a blood transfusion, I became exceedingly yârê.  Just as the storm became more violent and overwhelming for these sailors, so do the storms in our life seem to grow larger with no end in sight.  We feel that the ship is about to break completely apart in the open waters, just like these pagan sailors.

Yârê has a dual meaning, however.  Yârê can mean to have honor, respect, and awe.  Interestingly, this was the ultimate response of the sailors.  The sailors came to a place they could no longer continue on their own, and for the first time in their lives they cried out to God (vv. 13-14).  They asked God not to hold them accountable for Jonah's death (which they surely thought would happen when they threw him overboard into the raging, stormy sea).  As soon as Jonah was thrown from the ship, the Bible says "the sea ceased from raging" (v. 15).

We are then introduced to a new "exceedingly yârê."  The sailors "feared the Lord exceedingly" (v. 16).  This word translated "fear" in verse 16 is the same yârê in verses 5 and 10.  The sailors' fear moved from fearful to worshiping.  This is the nature of fear - on one hand possessing the capability of fright, worry, and terror, and on the other hand possessing a sense of awe, wonder, and respect that results in worship toward God.

Approximately one hour after we received the first phone call, we received a second phone call stating that the second set of labs came back normal.  Call the first lab a bad lab.  Call it a miracle.  In that moment, God transformed my yârê from that of fear of the unknown, fear of my daughter's life, fear of being completely out of control in a violent storm on a ship being tossed back and forth like a rag doll to that of awe, honor, and respect - a type of yârê in which worshiping God is the only logical response as He reminds me that he is in control of this large storm.

What should our response as believers always be when faced with significant storms?  Our response should be one of faith and trust in the One who has a perfect love for us.  My concern for my daughter's health and pleas for God's intervention were appropriate.   Our response should not be characterized as one that either blames God or loses faith in God.  Rather, we should remember that it was God who started the storm in Jonah, and it was God who calmed the storm in Jonah.

Do not miss how God uses the biggest storms to allow us to see His power in our lives.   God's greatest work in our lives often happens through the largest storms in our lives, and we need to recognize when God moves us from that of fear to that of worship.  God's transforming work brought the pagan sailors to the point of saving faith in God.  God is still in the process of transforming us today.