These people claim there are good reasons to be afraid. As nothing has “ever been this bad.” When in fact, all the data we can access points to the fact that we are living, right now, in the best time possible to be alive.

People who are afraid and people who think the world is awful have something in common. Bad philosophy. Often there is significant overlap between fear and thinking the world is awful anyway.

You can read last week’s post to read about my take on philosophy. Or become a paid subscriber and read my entire book on philosophy. But to put it simply, bad philosophers have bad lives and blame their bad lives on something outside of their control.

A philosopher is someone who makes decisions based on reason. The question is not whether we will or won’t be philosophers. The question is what kind will we be. Because all of us have our reasons for doing what we do.

Socrates said that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” So let’s examine ourselves.

The Bible verse I quoted last week was 2 Timothy 1:7

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” // 2 Timothy 1:7

What does it mean to have power, love and self-discipline? Let’s look at power this week.

power // δύναμις // dunamis

The definition for δύναμις is – the capability to work wonders.

I’m 6’5” and weigh 265 pounds. I’ve probably weighed that much for most of my adult life, although my body fat percentage has fluctuated quite a bit.

Here’s me and my dad around the time I was in high school. My dad is 6’6” and weighed about 240 in this picture. I was probably a little bit shorter in high school, so let’s say I was 6’3”, 250. I don’t feel like I’m that big of a person. I don’t wake up every morning and put my body on. When I was in high school, I was one of the biggest people in my class and in my school, but I never saw myself that way.

People will often ask me if I played sports in high school or college. Yes I did. I played basketball until I quit because I was lazy (that’s a story for another day). And I played football. For two weeks. Technically it was just practice though because it was spring ball. Well, I did play in middle school, and I have the picture to prove it.

I was a decent enough athlete at my 3A private school to get to practice as a receiver/tight end. I think they were just glad that we had players. My graduating class was about 100 people. And we often had to wait for football season to be over to have a complete basketball roster.

I hated getting hit. In my brief football career, my least favorite thing was trying to catch a pass over the middle. Because if you keep your eye on the ball, you’re not going to see where the guy is preparing to spear you from like Goldberg.

I would rarely put my head up if I was running an in route, because I was always looking at the guy that was going to hit me. There was one particular time where the safety stayed high and I was wide open over the middle. The QB threw me the ball and it bounced off my hands because I took my eye off the ball to see if I was going to get hit. Everyone was at least 5 yards away from me.

After this moment, the coach came up to me and asked me why I didn’t catch the ball. Now, if you’ve been at any high school practice before, you know these questions are rhetorical. There’s no good answer, so you don’t answer, and you take whatever punishment the coach measures out for you. I wasn’t that smart. I said, “coach I don’t want to get hit.” The expression on his face was one of shock and amazement. He had the two safeties run over to where we were on the field and stand next to me. My coach then said, “son, you’re a whole foot taller than this guy, and you outweigh the other one by 100 pounds, if they hit you, they’re going to get hurt, not you.”

I didn’t see it that way. Even though I was bigger and heavier, I still felt threatened because of how I saw myself. I didn’t want to experience the pain of taking a hit. For the rest of the spring football season I took some good hits, but they weren’t nearly as hard as I thought they would be. After those two weeks, I never played football again – I still didn’t like getting hit 😂 – but the lesson stuck with me.

Fear and timidity are the opposite of power, love and self-discipline.

When we are timid, we play small. We see ourselves as smaller than we are. Smaller than God wants us to be.

Do you see in you what God sees in you?

If God has given you a spirit of power, then it’s important to agree with him. You may be living life like 10th grade-football-Josh. Having no idea what you are capable of because of how you see yourself. I’ve never seen God overrule my self-perception.

In Scripture, there was a similar experience in Numbers 13 when the twelve spies went to spy out the land. In verse 33, 10/12 spies say that they see themselves as grasshoppers next to the giants that lived there. So it would certainly make sense that the giants would see them that way too.

God didn’t overrule this perspective. Instead, he kept the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years, until those people and perspectives died.

What if the only thing that wasn’t powerful about you is your perspective?

Why would you feel weak if you really believed that God has given you the capability to work wonders? That’s literally what the Bible says. If Jesus rules your life, you currently have the power within you to work wonders.

We are more capable than we know. So many people do not see themselves as powerful, so they never operate powerfully. They don’t want to take a hit, so they won’t catch the pass over the middle. Who told you that you weren’t powerful? Your parents? Your boss? Friends? Yourself?

If the God that created you calls you powerful, why would their opinion matter. God knows you better than you know yourself.

“You’re not who you think you are. You’re not who other people think you are. You’re not who you think other people think you are. You are who God says you are.” // Keith Craft

So many of us are living life and we’re not trying to win, we’re just playing not to lose. We think that in the “game of life” we could get hit hard enough that we get taken out by our enemy. I guess that could be true if we wanted it to be. Certainly some people live their lives as helpless beings always in need of a miracle.

Being weak and timid is often preferable. Because victims never have to take responsibility.

If you’re a victim of the devil, a victim of your environment, parents, upbringing or something else, then nothing is really ever your fault. The hits just hurt too much.

But maybe you don’t have to play that way. Maybe you just need to remind yourself that you’re bigger, stronger and faster than whatever your enemy is. Even the devil himself (1 John 4:4). If he hits you, he’s going to get hurt really bad. And then he’s going to lay on the ground and watch while you score a touchdown.

God says you’re bigger, stronger and faster than whoever you’re playing against. Do you agree with God about yourself? If you don’t, now is a great time to start.