Blog Post

"Fear of the LORD"

The First Step of Love

by Mark Mosley, M.D., M.P.H.

Feast of St Job the Prophet

Anno Domini 2020, May 6

Icon of the Unburnt Bush of the Theotokos (Mother of God)

“Fear of the LORD” has always been a difficult phrase for me. I have heard people soften it by claiming, “The Bible just means respect.” But it still sounds like a really tough Father; maybe just one who doesn’t beat you.

So, what if the fear is not a reflection of the character of God, but rather a reflection of our own neurochemical state? What if the “fear of the LORD” is not defined by punishment? And beyond that, what if all fear is not limited to a reactionary fight, flight, or freeze?

Can there be a fear that draws us? A fear that “scares” the heaven into us. Can there be a fear that we exist with that activates us, even elevates us, not just in our brain and body, but also in our “heart”? A beauty that “takes our breath away.” Doesn’t God use a very primitive chaotic condition, and create and elevate a holy ground from it?

We are organisms of biological homeostasis. We are created both individually and socially to maintain order. We are creatures of form, pattern, repetition, habit, order, organization, ritual, rules, and law.

When something does not follow form—whether that form is instinct, biological homeostasis, personal preference, social norm, family tradition, religious teaching, or government law—it makes for adrenaline and intense nervousness.

Uncomfortable, nervous, anxiety, fear, panic—each may have their situational nuances, but neurochemically they are all the same. The most primitive portion of our brain, shared by most animals of the world, is a fight, flight, or freeze response which occurs so lightning fast that it transmits automatically before any rational thought. This is our innate reaction to a Creator Who is beyond and before all that we can think and imagine. A God this immense is a threat to the allowance of our small existence.

Rightly understood, the fear of the LORD is not centered in destruction; it is centered in creation. Not the appeasement of a human-like anger; but the experience of an unthinkable mystery. The fear of the LORD is not the enforcement of cosmic rules of thought and behavior—it is the breaking of them. It is not tending the fire of an offering against His wrath; it is standing in the fire with Him without being burned.

What does one do then with the theological, philosophical, cultural, or even just personal emotional response to this idea of fear? I believe we look upon the Holy Mountains where God has shown Himself to humankind—places of transfiguration—where men see but cannot look, where they know without understanding, and where things burn without being consumed.

Isn’t courage simply the transfiguration of fear? The fear is not gone—it has simply been purified. In this same way,

wisdom is the transfiguration of law
love is the transfiguration of fairness
beauty is the transfiguration of pattern
worship is the transfiguration of ritual

Truth does not trap and contain; it sets free.

Animals cannot have their fear transfigured. But humanity takes their instinct and transfigures it into a creative act. In Christ, we understand that we are “little gods” (i.e., Christians, little christs). We take the chaos and bring new order. We break the familiar boundaries of thought, feeling, and action—and create. When we create, or enter into another’s creative act, it is exhilarating, awe-inspiring, “breath-taking,” and dopaminergic. It is the chemicals of fear that create this euphoria against pain. Fear of the LORD is our fear transfigured.

We stand in the awe of this fear. We bathe and bask in its beauty. We deeply breathe in its life-giving adrenaline without fighting, fleeing, or freezing. In creativity, we safely feel God with us. This freedom with fear is the first step of love.

Mark Mosley has done emergency medicine at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas for over 25 years. He is boarded in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. He received his M.D. from the University of Oklahoma. He earned his Master’s in Public Health in nutrition from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He is married to his wife Jane and has five children. He attends Saint George Orthodox Christian Cathedral.

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