Frightened

But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out . . . 

 - From Matthew 14

Experts tell us that fear is valuable, in that it alerts us to danger and provides the motivation to act. The adrenaline pumps, and we call on resources we didn't know we had.

But at the same time . . . fear that lingers becomes dangerous. When a crowd of people share in the fear, they feed off each others' emotions. It becomes a sort of high. The elevated spirit of a crowd can increase exponentially, and turn the crowd into a superhuman force that can make good things happen, or collapse into random destruction and violence.

There are a lot of bad things we would secretly like to do. A like-minded crowd gives us license to act out those carnal impulses. Even if there's a chance we would be found out later, and punished, there is great motivation in the urgings of a great mob.

That's what "caught up in the moment" means.

Jesus became particularly vexed at Peter's fear. Here was the Lord, walking out, on the surface of the water. The Twelve had already seen Him do uncountable miracles. They had every reason to trust Him. Jesus told Peter to come on out to Him - walking on water! At first Peter did okay. But the wind kept whipping along and the waves were rolling higher and higher. Peter's emotions . . . his flesh . . . overcame him.

Peter was frightened . . . and Jesus called that a "lack of faith."

Fear is a great motivator. Even today, puppet-masters somewhere on the planet have taken the fears of multitudes of college students: that they may have student loan balances for a very, very long time - - - and turned it into something re-branded as social action on behalf of a specific interest group.

Things are never what they seem on the surface. You may see someone walking across a lake, only a foot or two above fish, entangling weeds, perhaps infectious microorganisms, pollution, even filth. At the very least, the volume of water itself is always a threat to humans that linger below the surface, for too long.

On the surface, you may see bold social action on behalf of justice and equity. But it is mere feet away from great fear over concerns like health care and crippling debt.

Peter knew what tempest-tossed water can do. Undoubtedly, he had witnessed people drowning to death. It was a serious matter.

Jesus gets frustrated at us, when we fear. The waves of society are tossing all about us, in 2020. It is arguably the most foreboding year in American history. We find ourselves fearing, mistrusting, hating . . . and then we look out and see half-covered faces appearing as zombies walking about. It is easy to de-humanize someone on a computer screen, or whose face . . . and therefore, very humanity, has been erased and neutered.

Evil preys on our emotions.

Fear not . . . fear not.