I have a calendar in my home study that has a strange trait: it has two November Fourteenths instead of one November 13th and one November 14th. I suspect it’s an error, and not intentional, since I get a calendar from the organization this came from each year, and this is the only time I’ve noticed two days labelled November 14.
But it does lead one to wonder about that fear of the number 13, and some people’s ‘issue’ with Friday the Thirteenth. “Triskaidekaphobia” is the fear of the number 13; “paraskevidekatriaphobia” is the scientific name for the fear of Friday the 13th. Some say this superstition stems from the notion that Judas was the 13th person at the Last Supper, on the night before Good Friday.
In other cultures, it’s a different number than 13 that is problematic. What they all hold in common is that the fear is irrational.
A common meme that finds its way around the internet now and again says that “Fear not” appears in the Bible 365 times, once for every day in the year. I haven’t stopped to count them all, but it seems about right. When we trust in the Lord, we have no reason to fear, no reason to worry.
Sadly, though, we find it easy to fear, easy to worry, but not so easy to trust in the One who created us, redeems us in Christ, and sustains us by the Holy Spirit. That will change as our relationship with the Lord grows deeper, as we know God’s character better, and are assured more of his love and kindness.
What do you fear irrationally? Think about that, and let it be an occasion to trust in the Lord more fully.
“Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave” (Revelation 1.17b-18, NLT).
