First Notes: Turkish Coffee, Fears, and Faith

Dear First Baptist Family,

I love coffee and I love to travel. So when I travel internationally, I often seek out the oldest coffee shop I can find.

The El Fishaway coffee shop in Cairo was established in 1797. It still serves Turkish coffee in the heart of the Grand Bazaar. So while visiting the city in August, I took a taxi to one of the entrances to the market, thinking the coffee shop would be easy to locate. I then realized that I had no clue where to find it among the 1000 stalls selling textiles, crafts, and home goods. 

Fortunately, a man named Ahmed introduced himself and said he noticed that I seemed to need directions. After pointing me to the right entrance—there were multiple entry points to the thousand-stall bazaar—he said in broken English, “I’ll take you there.”

We walked deep into the heart of the market and located the shop, then sat down on cushions underneath the traditional lanterns known as fanoos. We ordered two Turkish coffees and Ahmed began to tell me about his life.

He had many fears. He was afraid he could not provide well for his family. He feared not fulfilling his dream of being a writer. He was anxious about how his father-in-law was treating him and how long that would continue. 

The more Ahmed talked, the more jittery he became. The Turkish coffee may have contributed to that. So I asked many questions and tried to listen attentively. 

I shared some of my own fears and talked about the difference faith can make, while acknowledging that faith alone cannot banish our fears. Life would always bring anxiety and troubles. So the best thing was to have a strong foundation that can hold when the storms come. When we parted, I encouraged him to pray—a source of wisdom and comfort. 

Every person on the planet holds some level of fear. We may fear health crises, being abandoned, or feeling rejected or humiliated. Many people fear death. 

Halloween is an annual time to kind of get all of our fears out in the open. Yes, when not treated as a family-fun day, Halloween can glorify death and justify our fears. But God doesn’t want us to live with debilitating, persistent fear — of death, of failure, or anything else.

This is why the most frequent command in the Bible is “Don’t be afraid.” Those words can be found 365 times in the psalms and great stories of faith. God knows we will feel afraid. And let’s be honest, there’s plenty to make us jittery. 

What are you afraid of? How does that fear keep your life from shining in a dark world?

And what would you do if you were not afraid?

Name your fears. Pray about your fears. Ask God for guidance and peace. Let God use you as you authentically share your fears and the difference your faith makes with others.

This Sunday, I'm going to begin a new sermon series on contentment from the book of Philippians that will run through November. I've never preached a sermon series on being content in a discontented world. I believe I'm going to learn a lot from the book of Philippians in the month ahead, and I hope you will, too. 

Philippians 1:1-11 is my text this week and the setting is Paul writing from a jail cell. He speaks of remarkable joy, affection, and thanksgiving in the midst of a hard time. He shows us that we can find a peace that overcomes our circumstances and fears, no matter what we’re going through. 

I hope to see you this Sunday. It's great that you can join us virtually and through television, and for some people that is a wonderful, necessary option. But for those that are able to be present, as I often tell people, “It’s better in-person!”

Until then, don’t be afraid. God is with you. He will never leave you or forsake you.
 
With love,

Pastor Brent McDougal