Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times

186 Pages·2018·3.97 MB·English

by  Adam Hamilton

PRAISE FOR UNAFRAID
“I want every American to read Adam Hamilton’s Unafraid. There is no
saccharine advice in this book, only honest assessments about the danger of
nurturing fears and the power of facing them down.”
—DIANA BUTLER BASS, author of Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks “A
thoughtful, literate, faith-filled guide to reclaiming our minds and our lives.”
—JOHN ORTBERG, senior pastor of Menlo Church, Menlo Park, CA, and author of I’d Like You More If
You Were More Like Me “Fear can cause us to become discouraged, disheartened, and even
despairing…. In his bold new book, Adam Hamilton shows us a way out.”
—JAMES MARTIN, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage “Informed by psychology and neuroscience,
Hamilton applies practical wisdom gleaned from the Bible and from his years as a pastor. I could
almost feel my blood pressure go down as I read.”
—PHILIP YANCEY, author of What’s So Amazing About Grace?
“An indispensable volume for people of faith who want to rise above dysfunction
and uncertainty.”
—MIKE MCCURRY, director of the Center for Public Theology, Wesley Seminary, and former White
House press secretary “A road map for facing our fears with faith. I highly recommend this book.”
—RICHARD ROHR, author of Falling Upward and founder and director of the Center for Action and
Contemplation, Albuquerque, NM
“Whatever challenge you’re facing today, you will find Hamilton’s words are
comforting, practical, proven, and inspiring.”
—JOHN C. DANFORTH, former U.S. ambassador to the UN and former three-term U.S. senator from
Missouri “Read Unafraid once to appreciate its tremendous value. Read it again, as I did, to allow
this consummate pastor to show you how to live with courage and hope.”
—MARIANN EDGAR BUDDE, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington “A wise and compelling
book.”
—MIROSLAV VOLF, founder and director of Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Yale Divinity School,
and author of Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World “Goes beyond mere analysis
to offer spiritual practices that can bring real peace to struggling people. I enthusiastically
recommend this book.”
—ED ROBB, senior pastor of the Woodlands United Methodist Church, Woodlands, TX
“Adam Hamilton has done it again, serving as a postmodern spiritual guide for a
nation in desperate need of renewal. The mix of science, philosophy, practical
biblical wisdom, storytelling, and personal testimony make this book a joy read.”
—OTIS MOSS III, senior servant/pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, IL
“I’ve known Adam for decades. I’ve watched him lead when he was fearful. In
Unafraid, he writes, ‘As you press through your fear, you live….’ He’s right.
Read Unafraid. Let Adam encourage you to face your fears and live.”
—MARK BEESON, founding pastor of Granger Community Church, Granger, IN

Copyright © 2018 by Adam J. Hamilton All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Convergent Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division
of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
crownpublishing.com
CONVERGENT BOOKS is a registered trademark and its C colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random
House LLC.
Excerpt from Hymn of Promise by Natalie Sleeth copyright © 1986 Hope Publishing Company, Carol
Stream, IL 60188, www.hopepublishing.com. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 9781524760335
Ebook ISBN 9781524760342
Cover design by Jessie Sayward Bright Illustration on this page copyright © Florilegius/Mary Evans v5.2
ep
To LaVon, whose courage in the face of fear inspired me to write this book
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Part One: UNDERSTANDING AND COUNTERING FEAR
Chapter 1: Afraid
Chapter 2: The Anatomy of Fear
Chapter 3: Paralyzed by Fear a Mile from the Promised Land
Chapter 4: Facing Your Fears
Part Two: CRIME, RACE, TERRORISM, AND POLITICS
Chapter 5: We Need a Security System
Chapter 6: Troost Avenue
Chapter 7: Weaponizing Fear
Chapter 8: The Sky Is Falling!
Part Three: FAILURE, DISAPPOINTING OTHERS,
INSIGNIFICANCE, AND LONELINESS
Chapter 9: “But What If I Fail?”
Chapter 10: Desperate to Please
Chapter 11: Meaningless
Chapter 12: Alone and Unloved
Part Four: APOCALYPSE, CHANGE, MISSING OUT, AND
FINANCES
Chapter 13: A Dystopian Future
Chapter 14: We Never Did It That Way Before
Chapter 15: FOMO
Chapter 16: I Could Buy Me a Boat
Part Five: AGING, ILLNESS, DYING, AND FEAR OF THE
LORD
Interlude: Siddhartha’s Story
Chapter 17: “I Don’t Want to Grow Old!”
Chapter 18: Anxiety, Worry, and Physical Illness
Chapter 19: “I’m Not Ready to Die”
Chapter 20: Living with Fear, Yet Unafraid
Acknowledgments
Appendix: 31 Days of Scripture Readings on Fear
About the Author
Part One
UNDERSTANDING AND
COUNTERING FEAR
1
Afraid
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love…all hopes for a
better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people
who embrace life.
—JOHN LENNON
I
n 1947, W. H. Auden published his Pulitzer Prize–winning book, The Age of
Anxiety. If the postwar 1940s and 1950s was the age of anxiety, ours might be
appropriately deemed the age of high anxiety.
We can hardly overstate the extent to which worry, anxiety, and fear permeate
our lives. We worry about the future, about politics, and about our health. We
fear violent crime, racial divisions, and the future of the economy. Deep rifts in
our nation leave us with an increasing sense of uncertainty. Fear in the financial
markets can wipe out billions of dollars of wealth in a single day. Our fears, in the
form of insecurity, often wreak havoc on our lives and personal relationships.
Google fear and you’ll find over six hundred million websites in 0.98 second.
My phone (and watch) vibrate multiple times each day with “breaking news,”
most of it bad. Today alone I’ve been notified of a subway bombing in Russia,
continued conflict in Congress, a constable shot in Texas, and three people killed
in St. Louis when a boiler exploded, and it’s only noon. Stories from parts of the
world we’d be hard-pressed to find on a map show up in our newsfeeds in close to
real time. Put enough of those stories together and it seems as if the world is
going to the proverbial “hell in a handbasket.” Molly Ball, writing in The Atlantic,
notes, “Fear is in the air, and fear is surging. Americans are more afraid today
than they have been in a long time.”*
In preparation for a sermon series, I recently conducted a survey of the
congregation at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, because I