Starting back in the '90s I learned a lot from R.C. Sproul. The biggest thing was the holiness of God. He really hit that hard and often and really well. And the Sovereignty of God; a huge topic with him. He wasn't a perfect man, but I learned a lot. So it was somewhat of a surprise to me to learn that Sproul refused to fly. He was afraid of flying. So he either drove or took a train to where he was going. And he went a lot. (Ironically, he and his wife were in the deadliest Amtrak crash in history, were both injured, and survived.) I was surprised because I wondered, "How can a man who believes in a truly Sovereign God be so afraid of some earthly possibilities?"
Turns out, of course, we're all in that condition in some ways. We all understand, for instance, that God is Sovereign over human government (Prov 21:1; Rom 13:1). So why do we worry about human government? Scripture is not vague on the promise of suffering and persecution, and that these will be to our benefit (Matt 5:10-12; Rom 5:3-5; James 1:2-4), but we still fear and even loathe suffering and persecution. We read the glorious promises about how God will "freely give us all things" (Rom 8:32) and "supply all your needs" (Php 4:19) and so on, and still we worry about our well-being. Just a few examples, but I think you get the point. It seems that, while we can claim orthodoxy (which, by the way, means literally "of the right opinion") and still feel heresy (a belief contrary to orthodoxy).
Let's not go too far with that. We all know that we have not reached perfection. We all know that the process of the entire Christian life is sanctification, the process of becoming more like Christ which is not achieved in this lifetime. We all need to be reminded that God is not finished with us yet. My aim here is not to point fingers, but to point to things we -- you and I -- might want to be aware of, to take stock of, to address in our lives. After all, if we are unwilling to act on what we say we believe, do we really believe it, or is it merely words? It can be a long way from head to heart, from hearing and acknowledging the truth to incorporating it in our very souls, but ignoring that fact won't make it happen sooner.
5 comments:
To some degree fears (like flying) are irrational. I've struggled with a fear of heights which has led to me not driving across certain bridges. I absolutely know intellectually that the bridge is safe, and I also am absolutely confident in God's sovereignty and perfectly comfortable with the notion that when it's my time, it's my time. Yet, I'll still switch drivers, not drive, or take an alternate route when confronted with certain bridges.
To me, it is crucial that the truths I hold be reflected in my attitudes and actions--if only to eliminate hypocrisy in my life and to strengthen my Christian witness. I see this “head to heart” application as a vital part of my sanctification process--for it is “where the rubber meets the road.”
I had not known about R.C. Sproul’s fear of flying; I agree that was inconsistent on his part, considering his head knowledge of God’s Sovereignty (and it was also irrational, in light of the fact that traveling by commercial plane is the safest mode statistically). And how ironic, indeed, for him to be involved in that train accident (traveling by automobile is even more dangerous, of course). As an aside, I am aware of a few other inconsistencies in R.C.’s theology, but like for you this hasn’t kept me from benefiting over the years from his writings and lectures, etc.
I can relate, Craig. Realistically, we can’t have full confidence about anything in our world, even while we know we are safely in God’s hands. In the case of bridges and traveling in general, we know that things are not 100% safe--i.e. bridges do collapse, airplanes do crash, rocks do fall onto the highway, trains do derail, etc.--so our fears are not completely irrational--just a bit blown out of proportion sometimes. We "take our chances" every day in life.
Lorna,
That is true. Although, I'd suggest that fear of something that has a very small chance of happening probably is irrational. As is fear of heights in one instance, but not in others.
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