Fear is a powerful motivator. Even the reluctant student might memorize lists of data for fear of failing a class. Motorists maintain a more conservative driving speed in areas where police regularly patrol. Unfortunately, there is also the fear that paralyzes and leads to irrational decisions and self-protective behaviors.
On the other hand, fear of God is the supremely rational fear, because it is a response to God’s power, position, and person. In scripture, we find this God-inspired awe or reverence was Nehemiah’s continual default. This is evident in his prayer in Nehemiah 1:11:
“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name . . .”
It is lived out in his beyond-the-call-of-duty generosity in Nehemiah 5:15:
“The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people . . . but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.”
Fear of God is the supremely rational fear because it is a response to God’s power, position, and person.
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Nehemiah was being formed by his fear. This was a salutary thing in his case because his fear was well-placed. In fact, Nehemiah’s fear of God prevented him from fearing his enemies and their threats. Borrowing the wording of Thomas Chalmers’s book title,1 let’s think of it as “the expulsive power” of a better fear.
Exodus 20:20 illustrates the difference between the two kinds of fear. Moses attempts to reason with the people of Israel that if they would only fear God [with reverence and awe], they would not need to be afraid of God [with servile terror].
Carole Duff learned to fear at an early age. Wisdom Builds Her House is her memoir, tracing her journey from atheism to Christianity, from secrets to self-disclosure, and from impatience and inconsistency to a steadfast commitment to the plan of God for her life.
When she retired from her teaching career to focus on overseeing the construction of a house in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her new husband, Duff collided with questions about her husband’s deceased daughter, Gretchen. The parallels between her own story and her discoveries in Gretchen’s journal force her to reckon with long-buried secrets and to talk about fearful things. As she began framing her new home, she also framed a new way of seeing the world.
Women in transition and empty nesters will find a traveling companion in Carole Duff’s ongoing stream of thoughts, feelings, and internal conversations about her role, her identity, her past, and her future. She owns her mental health struggles, her flaws, and her failures as she chronicles a two-steps-forward-three-steps-back sanctification process in a way that feels didactic and redemptive. After all, who of us has lived a perfectly upward trajectory?
A Chinese proverb thrums in a steady drum beat through Duff’s narrative: “Go into the heart of danger, for there you will find safety.” Sure enough, Duff found the freedom she had longed for by digging into the hard parts of Gretchen’s journals and daring to be vulnerable with her family and with God. She discovered that “freedom from fear brings indescribable joy… and freedom comes from God.”
What Other Reviewers Are Saying
“This book will speak tenderly to those building a second marriage, those seeking purpose after closing the book of a long career, and those wrestling with shame and God’s gentle whisper to ‘leave it.'” ~Afton Rorvik
“This entrancing narrative is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a reminder that ‘some truths can only be seen in darkness.'” ~Lisa St. John
Find more of Carole’s writing at Notes from Vanaprastha.
Holding You in the Light,
- The Expulsive Power of a New Affection by Thomas Chalmers ↩︎
In her memoir #WisdomBuildsHerHouse, @CaroleADuff rejoices that “freedom from #fear brings indescribable joy… and freedom comes from God.” @brandypublish
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Living Our Days 
Lately, I close my eyes at night believing the news cannot get worse and then I open my computer in the morning and find I was wrong. Watching the world in self destruct mode can drag you down, make you spiral into disfunction where you consider throwing up your hands while conceding, ‘I give up!’
However… as bad as it seems, with a projection of worse to come, I can’t ignore one thing – the enemy wants me to give up, to feel defeated, to reject my faith and stop listening to the still small voice, to stop trusting what God has promised. So, I reason, that if that’s what the enemy wants, I must be doing something right or he wouldn’t continue to bother me.
Therefore, I can’t see the downside to keep on keeping on. I say, ‘get thee behind me satan!’ and out of the wreck I rise. :)a
Out of the Wreck I Rise
Oswald Chambers
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [Romans 8:35)
God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble…” [Psalm 91-15] It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors…” [Romans 8:37]. Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors” in the midst of them, not because of our own ingenuity, nor because of our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ.
I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there. “Shall tribulation…?” Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be— whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness— it is not able to “separate us from the love of Christ.” Never allow tribulations or the “cares of this world” to separate you from remembering that God loves you [Matthew 13:22].
“Shall…distress…?” Can God’s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice? “Shall…famine…?” Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be “more than conquerors,” even while we are being starved?
Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or else some extraordinary thing happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it— the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.
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God’s timing is funny. I just took a break from writing a post about trusting God in this season of pending frost, and here you are with fresh reassurance. Rising out the wreck, we practice resurrection by the power of God. As you have said, our tribulations are preparation.
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‘internal conversations about her role, her identity, her past, and her future. She owns her mental health struggles, her flaws, and her failures …’
Maybe these kind of reflections, done in the company of others who are safe and wise, will end up being our best work when all is said and done.
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I agree, and was really challenged by the degree of honesty Carole held herself to as she excavated her past.
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I definitely need to read this one, Michele. I appreciate Carole’s wisdom so much.
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