The quote from Anne Lamott ending the previous article in this series leads poignantly onto our third contender for the opposite of faith: and that is fear.

Although faith is almost always paired with doubt, so is fear. Fear and doubt often go together and play similar roles in working against faith. Like doubt then, fear can be seen in opposition to faith. And we can argue that like overcoming doubt, overcoming fear can make our faith stronger, or indeed is evidence of a stronger faith.

Mind and body

But there is a difference. Though fear can lead to doubt it is less likely for doubt to lead to fear. Doubt has a strong element of intellectual processing attached to it. It questions whether something is true. Fear is an instinctive emotion driven by threat, such as the potential for death or the possibility of pain. Fear ‘questions’ whether something is worth suffering or dieing for.

Sometimes it is simply easier and safer to ‘give up’ your faith rather than suffer persecution, or the fear of it. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have lost your faith – simply that fear has made you keep quiet about it. Giving up faith through fear does not require an intellectual acceptance of disbelief, whereas a decision to give up because of doubt does.

Peter

When exploring the interplay between fear and faith it is unfortunate – or perhaps very fortunate – that Peter provides two of the best examples.

The first passage in Luke 22: 54 - 62 concerns Peter’s denial of Jesus three times during his trial. He did this not because he had stopped believing, but because he was afraid of the consequence of being known as a believer, which given the mood of the crowd was a severe threat. Jesus’ absence may also have been a factor. Peter seemed to have fewer inhibitions when he was defending Jesus at his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane only hours earlier.

Any threat makes our “fight or flight” syndrome kick in. Our natural instinct is self-preservation and we will only fight when we have confidence of victory; in other words, when our faith in the outcome outweighs our fear.

The wind and the waves

In life threatening situations the fear of death is likely to make us all take the 'flight' option and lose our faith – even, as we can see in the second example, when it is at its strongest.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14: 29 - 31).

“Because I’m defying the laws of physics?” Peter replied. Actually, he didn’t but it’s what I would have said had I been able to string a sentence together. In fact, that isn’t what concerned Peter at all. He stepped out of the boat in faith and his faith was rewarded. He was walking on water. It had become a certainty and at that point any doubts had vanished.

What concerned Peter was the wind and the fear that came with it. The fear brought uncertainty, then doubt and the battle with his faith was renewed. It is captured beautifully in this simple picture. He did not drop like a stone; he began to sink. His fear and the doubts that came with it pulled him into the water. His faith fought to hold him up but in the end it wasn’t enough and Jesus “caught him”.

And note this: if Jesus had not caught him he may have drowned, a victim of fear and doubt. Even Peter - who had just walked on water….

What causes you to fear?

How does it affect your faith?