[This reflection by Helen Ruffhead was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 10/Mar/2024]
Recently on Connect in Faith we have been looking at how Jesus sets us free from various forms of slavery, one of which is fear of people. This fear takes two forms: fear of what people can do to us and fear of what they think of us.
As a teenager both these fears paralysed me, probably as a result of being persistently bullied throughout my childhood. Hebrews 13 v 6 says: “The LORD is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Unfortunately there are many things people can do to us. They can rob us of all our possessions, wound us emotionally and hurt us physically, even torturing us to death. Fear of being tortured for my faith made me hold back from full commitment to Christ and even now I doubt if I could withstand a moment of torture. All I can do is trust that God is in control, that he loves me and will not test me beyond what I can bear, as promised in 1 Corinthians 10 v 13.
The fear of what people think of me dominated my younger years. When you can’t read faces or body language, it is hard to know what people are thinking and all too easy to assume the worst. Adopting two boys with Down’s syndrome, who think I am wonderful, helped me to worry less about what other people think, but for many years I remained frightened of teenagers, as it is an age when people tend to be most critical and least accepting of those who are different. Doing maths tutoring with teenagers helped me to see that they weren’t so terrifying, but it was when God called me to host homeless teenagers in my home that I finally faced and overcame that fear.
When waiting for the first young person to arrive, it suddenly hit me that it didn’t matter a bit what they thought of me, all that mattered was that they knew I cared about them. That thought was so liberating and I was able to care for them without fear, either for my physical safety or of what they thought of me. As with so many fears, facing up to them brings freedom.
The best cure for worrying about what people think of us is to know how God sees us, as his chosen people, holy and dearly loved. (Colossians 3 v 12).
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Last week’s reflection: A Seismic-Shift in History by Dazz Jones
Contributed by Helen Ruffhead; © the Author
