The Nightmare Driving the American

Dream

Millions wear ambition to camouflage their insecurities.

Not all ambition is insecure or ungodly (Romans 15:20), but a
lot of it is. For instance, the apostle Paul says, Do nothing
from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others
more significant than yourselves (Philippians 2:3). Ambition
for the sake of Christ fills the heart and makes a real
difference. Ambition for self draws an elegant veil over an
empty heart, staying busy in order to look and feel significant.

The American Dream looks like an impressive mountain to

climb when its really just a tiny cave in which to hide. People
look like they are aspiring, striving, and succeeding, but in
reality they are cowering. Confident, put together, assertive
on the outside, but terrified within. We cover our deepest
fears by trying to achieve more, acquire more, and be more.

Five Fears Steering Our Hearts

So, what are we so afraid of?

Our fears may wear new styles of clothing, listen to new
artists, and refuse to pay for cable, but they are ancient,
relentless, and contagious. The same anxieties terrorizing us
today were terrorizing the church and the world in New
Testament times. The list below is not exhaustive, but
represents five fears the Bible addresses that are as alive
today as ever.

1. We are afraid to have needs.

Jesus knew we would fear need. He preached to his disciples,
Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what
you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on
(Matthew 6:25). Then he repeated himself twice more in the
next nine verses (Matthew 6:31, 34). If he was preaching
today to Christians in comfortable, affluent America, would he
say something different?
No, because anxiety about our external needs is not really
about those needs, but about our hearts. We are afraid about
our food, and drink, and clothing and mortgage payments,
and appliances that need to be replaced, and tuition bills
because we simply cannot believe what Jesus says: Fear not,
little flock, for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the
kingdom (Luke 12:32).

2. We are afraid of what others might think.

Sadly, the Pharisees may fit in just fine in many American
churches. Who knows just how happy they would have been in
todays social-media popularity contests?

They opposed and even killed Jesus because they loved the
attention and praise of man too much (Mark 11:18). At the
same time, they restrained their murderous jealousy against
Jesus at times to preserve their favor among the people (Mark
14:12). They lived and killed for approval, and ran from
disapproval like it carried some life-threatening disease.
Why do we care so much about what others think? Because
we are born, in our sin, wanting to be God and believing we
are worthy of worship. Not the Sunday-morning-in-the-pew
kind of worship, but a visible, countable, comparable kind of
reverence and recognition. We live for likes, follows, and
compliments, and fear rejection or even worse, being
overlooked.

3. We are afraid of what others might do.

We dread what others might do even more than what they

might think. In America, Christians do not worry about being
killed for our faith, or even physically harmed in any way.
Were just afraid we might get maligned, shamed, or
excluded.
The apostle Peter preaches into our fears and insecurities,
Even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be
blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled (1 Peter
3:14). But what if they never talk to me again? What if they
report me to my boss, or spread false rumors about me? What
if they fire me, or refuse to do business with me? Have no
fear of them.
The apostle John goes even further than Peter: Do not fear
what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to
throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and
for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death,
and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10)
Some of you will be thrown into prison. You will be tested. You
will die (unto death). Do not fear.
If we believe Peter, and John, and Jesus, we can confidently
say, The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to
me? (Hebrews 13:6).

4. We are afraid to lose control.

Every story from Jesuss life and ministry deserves special

attention and awe, but one has shocked me as much as any
year after year. Jesus comes to a demon-oppressed man in
fact, hes oppressed by a horde of demons (Mark 5:9). The
man walked around naked (Luke 8:27), could not be bound by
anyone (Mark 5:3), cried out day and night in agony, and cut
himself over and over with stones (Mark 5:5).
Then Jesus healed him. He cast all his demons into a herd of
pigs, and finally freed the man from a lifetime of enslaving
and self-destructive evil. What happens next is the shocking
twist: Then people went out to see what had happened, and
they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the
demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in
his right mind, and they were afraid. (Luke 8:35)
Jesus sets the demon-oppressed free, leaving a wild and
violent criminal clothed and in his right mind. And instead of
rejoicing, worshiping, and drawing near, the people retreat
and reject Jesus instead. Then all the people of the
surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart
from them, for they were seized with great fear (Luke
8:37). Why? Maybe because he killed
their pigs, and ruined someones business. Or might it be
because they saw what he was capable of, and they were
terrified he might upset, disrupt, and overturn their life, too?
They were afraid to lose control.
The demon-oppressed man had lost control a long time ago.
When Jesus comes and heals him, he begs to be with Jesus.
The crowds had cultivated the illusion of control, and they
werent ready to surrender that to anyone, not even one with
the power and authority and compassion of Christ.
Are we ready?

5. We are afraid to die.

Fears of need, rejection, and persecution plague many of us,

but death is the nightmare driving the American Dream. The
writer to the Hebrews says of Jesus,
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he
himself likewise partook of the same things, that through
death he might destroy the one who has the power of death,
that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of
death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:1415)

Like King David, each of us is born into this lifelong slavery,

from our very first breath to our dreaded last breath, unless
God raises us from the dead. I know my transgressions, and
my sin is ever before me. . . . Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me (Psalms
51:3, 5).
American or African or Asian, Christian or Muslim or Buddhist,
we are all born into sin and under its curse. The whole earth
groans under its death sentence (Romans 8:2021). Death
comes to every one of us, and yet we try to ignore it for the
vast majority of our lives, naively thinking it might go away.
Yet the harder we run away from it, the faster it closes the gap
on us.
The promise of success, and the thrill of sinful pleasure, and
the high of spending, and the buzz of entertainment all treat
the symptoms, but they cannot liberate us from slavery. They
mask our fear of death, dulling our senses, and blinding us to
reality, tragically leaving us even more hopeless than before.

Do Not Fear

Death is the nightmare in the American Dream, but not in the

Christian life. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death,
where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting
of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be
to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ (1 Corinthians 15:5457).
We do not fear need, because we know our Father will give us
what we need today (Matthew 6:3233), and everything else
forever when we are finally with him (Romans 8:32).
We do not fear what others think, because God himself sent
his Son to show us just how much he loves us (1 John 4:910).
We do not fear what others might do, because Jesus satisfied
the just wrath of God we deserved (Romans 3:2526), and no
one on this earth or anywhere else can separate us from him
(Romans 8:3537).
We do not fear losing control, because we know the one who
governs and decides all things is working absolutely
everything, large and small, for our good (Romans 8:28).
We certainly do not fear death, because, as John Piper says,
Death has become a doorway to paradise. Not only can
death not touch what we treasure most, because of Christ, but
it is forced to deliver our greatest treasure to us.
If we fear God, we need not fear persecution, poverty,
punishment, or death. The American Dream loses its appeal
because it offers less life, liberty, and happiness than we find
in Jesus. Having died to fear, we are raised to freedom.