Face-ing
What We Fear
Image courtesy of Ben Jared, accessed via Getty Images. A golden statue of Trump dedicated in May of 2026 at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.
Reading through the Bible…II Kings 15-16/John 3:1-18
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3:14-15)
The Gospel of John, right before one of the most famous verses in the Bible (John 3:16) refers to an obscure incident recorded in Numbers 21.
Aaron, the high priest, dies. Edom forces Israel to take a detour on their journey to the promised land. The people became irritable and cross…So, God sends poisonous snakes among the people; they bite them and many in Israel die.
The people came to Moses for help. Moses prays…God speaks, “Make a snake and put it on a flagpole: Whoever is bitten and looks at it will live.” (Numbers 21:4-9).
Moses does what he is told. He makes a bronze statue of a snake on a pole. The people who are snake bit, look at the statue, They are healed.
A statue of a snake on a flag poll? That’s almost as strange as the story of the Golden Emerods (KJV for hemorrhoids) and golden mice desribed in I Samuel 5-6 and pictured above. The Philistines make these statues to save themselves from what may have been a bubonic plague.
Statues of a snake on a pole. Golden Hemorrhoids. You can’t make this stuff up. You can, however, lift this stuff up.
For the Israelites and the Philistines, this is not idolatry. It’s exposure therapy. These are ways (like EMDR or CBT today) for them to face their fears.
Writing…
I wonder if that is what the oldest President of the United States is trying to do.
The Daily Beast reported: a bizarre unveiling of a 22-foot golden statue of President Donald Trump has taken place at one of his golf clubs — complete with a dedication from an evangelical Pastor Mark Burns, who has been a member of Pastors for Trump since 2023 and is seen as the president’s informal spiritual adviser.
I wonder if our President is afraid to die? With The Don Colossus, along with the constant AI created social media posts incarnating his face in almost everyone…is he trying to face his fears?
Building…
It may be helping him. It’s not doing much for me. Maybe I should try some golden emerods.
For me, it’s not a snake on a flagpole, or a statue on a Miami golf course. For me, it’s Jesus on a cross, that helps me in face-ing my fears.
It’s God in Person suffering along with me. It’s God, through Jesus, telling me, “you may suffer, but you will never suffer alone”.
It’s God saying, “you can endure your suffering, because your suffering will not endure. You can get through it in this life, because there is an eternal life coming.”
With my brother’s funeral being held on Saturday, let me be vulnarable. I sometimes fear that frontal lob dimentia could steal my memory, like it does for my brother.
When I have those fears, it helps me to remember Jim’s face. It helps me to know that he faces his condition with a chuckle, not a groan. It helps me to remember his smile, not his grimace.
I will put Jim’s face on what I fear this Saturday at his funeral. Better yet, I will see Jesus facing His own death on the cross.
Putting both of their faces on suffering and death may force me to face my own mortality. I may suffer like Jim. Still, thanks to Jesus, I won’t suffer alone. I may lose my memory like Jim. Still, in Christ, not my place in heaven.
Putting Jim’s and Jesus’ face to my fears may make it harder to ignore them. It just might make it easier, however, to endure and overcome them.
Maybe our President, maybe all of us, ought to try it.