Rebuilt, Reformatted – April 13, 2022 (103/365)

What’s the opposite of Fear Of Missing Out?

I saw a funny post from a Facebook page dedicated to introverts that proclaimed that JOMO exists as well. Oh, you haven’t heard of it? It’s the Joy Of Missing Out. I was tempted to share it but I found myself adding it to my meme collection, in cold storage for the right moment to release it into the wild, into the feeds of those my social media ‘web’ who may or may not have seen it, but would probably respond when I do the sharing.

But it’s not JOMO that I’m looking for here. I’d say replace Fear with Confidence, but being a Christian or someone accepting reformation of mind and being courtesy of the Holy Spirit pouring everlasting life into me by way of hearing the Good News of Christ and His finished work (inhale) I’d say it was Perfect Love that not only cast out, but replaced Fear. It took its place wherever it showed its ugly face in my entire being, down to the smallest of details.

In fact, it sort of hit me now. I used to quote Andrew Farley a lot when he shared what he felt about Christians who struggled with sin. A big part of the said struggle involves these brothers or sisters of ours saying that the sin was something that they were used to doing, and therefore couldn’t shake it so easily. Still others would say that it’s part of them and therefore would rather live in a fatal cycle of condemnation, ‘repentance’, and living in temporary victory until the next hit. Dr. Farley would straight up remind each and every one of us that we have been made new creations, down to the core; Which means it no longer implies that what we used to do before Christ came to live in us, as before we started to live in Christ – what we used to do is no longer necessarily what we want to do any longer. It also implies that anything and everything which used to be a ‘part’ of us back before Christ… all of it was torn down. Sure as Christ died, so all of us was torn down…

And sure as Christ rose again, so we were re-built from the ground up. If you’ve tuned into my ramblings for some time now (and I couldn’t imagine why you would but thank you anyway), I like to say that we’ve been rebuilt just as Paul would tell the Corinthians – that we’ve been made new, and therefore are reminded now and always that we are Temples of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that’s one way of seeing it. And now that we’re new creations, guess what – we have new routines that we have a lifetime and and eternity to discover, and we discover parts of us that we’ve never had – if we claim that sin is part of us, well, now it’s not just that we say that sin is no longer part of us, but it’s also the Truth for us to discover that righteousness is part of us. If we claim that we were doomed to die, well, listen to Christ speaking to Martha in John 11 (a chapter I remember dearly); Christ says He is the Resurrection and the Life, and He says the most amazing thing – even if we die, we live, and those who believe in Him will never die.

So what is it? To clarify, we’ve been made new creations with a new mind and heart, we’ve been made new creations beyond this reality, beyond all that is finite and visible. That’s right, the only way I’m thinking I could reconcile this (which will definitely have some errors, not gonna lie) is to say that when we’ve been made new, we’ve been made new beings, which not only involves what we see with our senses, but we’ve also been re-created (brought into existence, if you will) in the infinite and eternal, which is unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18). Therefore, when Christ said, even if we die, we live – I could only imagine He was pointing out that those who come to believe in Him are no longer mere flesh and blood. So even if our physical bodies die, the rest of our being present in eternity shall live, and therefore never die.

I don’t know, sorry about the side quest I had to take there, but my main point in bringing all of this up is only to say that as we believe in Christ and as we allow Him into us, we are made new creations. I used to think, I used to preach that this meant that sin is no longer something that is compatible with us… and even if we do sin, it wouldn’t feel as good as, say, actually living out the righteousness that is 100% compatible to our identity.

And as Christ’s righteousness replaced sin, so has God’s perfect and everlasting love not only cast out fear, but has replaced fear in our heart. I need to take that in before I go any further. God’s perfect love has replaced fear in my actions. God’s perfect love has replaced fear in my routines. God’s perfect love has replaced fear in my reactions, my responses, my plans, my default state; It’s been a total overhaul of hardware and software…

And here’s the thing, I don’t think I even want to know what the opposite of FOMO is now… because no matter how much FOMO disrupts me as it did today, I can be sure that it’s not going to drag me down forever. This sin and fear could try to latch onto me and lay claim to my being, but here’s the thing – I will always be righteous, and I will always be in perfect love, now and forever, only because Jesus Christ cared so much to give everything up for me who was nothing and was headed to oblivion, to be anything before the eyes of the Creator of the Universe.

I say to anyone who’s indecisive, anyone who’s hitting themselves and hurting themselves for not taking the shot out of fear and doubt, that there may be consequences to our hesitations, but man… we could probably properly predict the outcome of us holding back, but not only do we know there is a God who knows each and every possible outcome from all possible angles, but we know that He is for us. He is not against us. He loves us with an infinite love which we would measure only in vain. He loves us with a perfect love that casts out and replaces the fear. The overthinking. The overanalysis.

I mean, come on. I’m telling myself right now, this same Christ who spoke to a corpse to come to life, this same Christ who spoke forgiveness of sins AND healing to a paralytic, SURELY He speaks, and not only does He speak but SINGS songs of deliverance to us – yes, we who have been paralyzed by our own minds.

There’s no missing out in His love. No, Christ paid such a great price so we are assured that (1) nothing separates us from His love, and (2) He makes all things work for our good.

It is as the hymn says. What a Friend we have in Jesus.

God bless us all.