For the longest time, FOMO was a thing. I think it was starting to not be a thing when I finally found out that it meant the Fear Of Missing Out instead of Frying Onions Makes Odors.
I cringe when I think of all the times I used it incorrectly, which is actually a pretty good segue into FOMU, four letters that represent a couple of fears that may be more common than FOMO.
I meet people every day who suffer from one of two FOMUs.
Um, I think adding an “s” to the end means I just experienced the first one: Fear Of Messing Up. Clearly, typing “FOMUs” would make that Fear Of Messing Ups, which could just be anxiety about a practical joke played on a UPS driver gone wrong.
But I digress. The Fear Of Messing Up is a widely held dread that keeps us from trying anything new, or anything that we don’t feel like we have mastered. But if we don’t try something because we might mess up, then we’ll forever be stuck only attempting to repeat the same mediocrity that we’ve lived with to this point.
Not only will we never develop any more excellence; we also won’t ever know the power of God. In case you’ve forgotten, God doesn’t struggle with FOMU because He’s actually pretty good at bringing messages from messes. As a former and sometimes current mess, I’m thankful that His ability to use my messes actually sets me free from the fear of making messes. If you’re following along, that would be FOMM, another less-popular way of expressing our first FOMU, and one that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
I love the truth expressed by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah:
To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. (Isaiah 61:3 NLT, emphasis mine)
There’s a second FOMU, and I believe this one is more prevalent and more dangerous than the first. It’s the Fear Of Measuring Up, and the reason this one is so deadly is that it’s a strike from the enemy at who we are. The first FOMU paralyzes our activity, but this one seeks to paralyze our identity.
It’s one thing to be afraid that we won’t do enough; it’s another when we fear that we may not be enough.
Comparison is a killer, and every time we do it, we miss the miracle that is true about all of us: God knit us together in our mother’s wombs, and even though we messed up, He still sent His Son to remind us that we measure up because of Jesus.
In the letter Paul wrote to the Romans, he was barely getting started before he wrote a truth in verse 7 that we can’t afford to overlook: he addressed the letter to those “who are loved by God.”
We are His beloved. We are His handiwork. We are His masterpiece.
We are the trophy of grace that He proudly displays for the world to see, and when His light shines through us, all the cracks and crevices that came from the first FOMU reveal the grace that He poured into those places. Our messes amplify His message.
It doesn’t mean that we should just go around messing up, but it does mean that we don’t have to live with the fear of messing up because our Father loves us, even the messiest among us.
So, here’s to the messes! The ones who are afraid of messing up, measuring up, and yet keep looking up to the Father who still calls us His own.
To Him be the glory forever and ever!
Amen.
Photo by Allen Taylor on Unsplash
