Stage Fright:
When we are scared, facing our fears, what sort of advice do we need to hear?
“Whatever you do, don’t think about the fact that there are 7 million people watching this live right now…” so says the live chat show presenter to a guest who already looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights…Stage fright, performance anxiety, fear in general can be a horribly paralysing thing.
Laurence Olivier — suffered five years of agonising dread following a press night in 1964, when he found his voice diminishing and the audience “beginning to go giddily round”. He developed strategies. When delivering his Othello soliloquies, he asked his Iago to stay in sight, fearing “I might not be able to stay there in front of the audience by myself”. He asked actors not to look him in the eye: “For some reason this made me feel that there was not quite so much loaded against me.” The venerable Sybil Thorndike gave him trenchant counsel: “Take drugs, darling, we do.”
Adele — was once so frightened that she escaped out of the fire exit. In Brussels, she projectile-vomited over somebody. She copes by telling jokes.
Ellen Terry — An actress in the 1860s gave this description of stage fright “You feel as if a centipede, all of whose feet have been carefully iced, has begun to run about in the roots of your hair.” Then it seems as if somebody “has cut the muscles at the back of your knees”. As your mouth slowly opens, no sound comes out. “It was,” she said, “torture. Like nothing else in the world.”
The author: Fix your eyes on Jesus, forget everything that holds you back, put it to one side and run the race.
Real Terror
Generally, the advice seems to be to take your mind off of the situation you are in and those watching you who are causing your anxiety. Yet in this text the author seems to take great pains to remind his readers of exactly who is watching them.
And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
He is writing to Jewish Christians:
frightened and anxious
Nero’s persecution
Asia Minor, Syria, Thessalonia or Philippi.
These are dangerous times to be a christian:
professing your faith was likely to lead to imprisonment, torture and probably death.
There was a lot of pressure to turn away from Christianity.
Far from a bum note or a forgotten line, this was real fear, real terror, for life and limb.
This is all part of his encouragement that following Jesus is better than anything else. He has told the readers:
Jesus is better than the angels,
better than Moses and the Old law,
better than Aaron and the levitical priesthood,
forms a perfect new covenant with God,
in the perfect tabernacle of heaven,
as the perfect never needed again sacrifice (chapter 10)
The author has already mentioned Abel, Noah, Moses…then we come to these further heroes:
Gideon, who led Israel to victory over the Midianites,
Barak a great Judge alongside Deborah,
Samson who ‘won strength out of weakness',
Jephthah who fought against the Ammonites,
David one of the greatest — and also most flawed — kings Israel had known,
Samuel the prophet…and
allusions to Daniel.
Suffering is part of the race
So far so good right? These people were led by God to do mighty acts, surely this encourages the readers that they can be comforted by being faithful to God, because he will lead them to mighty acts too right? So why does the author then go on to say…
Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
Wait a minute! This doesn’t feel so encouraging. Torture (the Greek has a sense of being pounded like drums)? Mocking and flogging? Chains and imprisonment? Stoning? Being sawn in two? Penniless, persecuted, tormented, homeless? What is going on here? What is the writer trying to say?
Heb. 11:39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.
It is as if the writer is saying, ‘hold on a tick’ yes some people did mighty stuff, but there was great darkness too, that hasn’t gone because the race isn’t yet over. We all need to have run it in order for it to be finished, for perfection. Perfection here has its roots in the Greek word Telos — end goal or purpose. God wants us all to meet our purpose our end goal together. So that may mean that some people will not see what is promised in this life until we have all ‘run the race.’ So that we can meet our purpose, our end goal, our perfection, together.
Put aside weight and run with perseverance.
Heb. 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
Is the writer urging escapism through drugs or jokes? No. In fact, the writer suggests that the reality of the situation should hit the reader. They are surrounded by ‘so great a cloud of witnesses’ and we should run the race that is set before us. But this great cloud of witnesses is intimidating isn’t it? I know how I would feel if I was told ‘all these amazing people have done this really difficult thing, so you should too.’ I am sure that we can all think of somebody who is nicer than you, more devout, holier, better than you. I know I could if I wanted to. BUT that is not what this writer is actually saying. None of the people he mentions started out in a great place. All had some darkness to wrestle with, all had frailty. Samson had his vanity and pride in his strength, David was an adulterer and a murderer. These were not mighty men of faith, but just people of faith with a mighty God.
How are we to run this race then, well the writer tells us to remove any weight — burden, encumbrance, hindrance, and the sin that clings so closely — or that distracts us from the end goal and run with perseverance the race that is set before us. We are to rid ourselves of the things that weigh us down, our doubts, our fears, our things that separate us from being able to recognise we are God’s:
Do people remember Linford Christie, Linford ‘lunchbox’ Christie, famous for wearing such skintight clothing that, well, his vulnerable parts were on display for all to see. He didn’t do that because he was some kind of exhibitionist. He did it because he wanted nothing to get in the way of him running fast. Heck the ancient Greeks would do it naked.
We need to have the attitude of Linford Christie, anything that gets in the way of this thing God wants us to do we need to rid ourselves of. We may look vulnerable and ridiculous, but we will be able to run faster. And with less weight comes more perseverance. So what is weighing you down? perhaps it is a sense that the race is nearly run, that there is little that you can do, perhaps even a sense of insignificance. This is where perseverance kicks in:
Marathon runners talk about ‘hitting the wall’ the point in long distance running where you reach a physical limit and you just want to stop. It isn’t the end of the race but quite a few people can end up dropping out at that point. It takes real mental perseverance as well as physical perseverance to be able to break through that wall and finish the race. Often they talk about the need to visualise the end.
Visualising the End Goal
2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, that is how we achieve the marathon runner’s perseverance. It is Jesus who helps us to remove all the weights and hindrances, it is Jesus who has already run this race and won the victory. Jesus, who saw beyond the cross to the end goal and pushed through it. Jesus who is victorious. None of the others really matter. And this is the real point that the writer is making.
I remember running my first 5k race. I wasn’t great, it was a looping circuit around Springfield mental health hospital in Tooting. Every time we went around the back of the hospital, there was no one there, I would find myself running out of energy, slowing down. At times I was barely trotting. Then I would turn the corner and there would be the finish line, there was my wife and my daughter as well as a whole crowd of others shouting us on, egging me to run. I found that extra ounce of energy, their rooting for me gave me what I needed to get to the end.
It is by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, on the one who has won the victory, that we can keep the determination to run this race. It is because we can see that he has done it that we can do it in his strength. And the crowd of witnesses? They aren’t scrutinising us for mistakes they are urging us on. Shouting for us all the way.
So on the tightrope do we look down? In front of the crowd do we keep our eyes on all of them? No. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we put aside those things that weigh us down, we let the cheering cloud of witnesses give us energy, and we run. And we don’t stop running until the end.
