It happened many years ago, but I remember the experience as if it was yesterday. It was late September and I was in the first grade. The teacher assigned an art project. “Draw a picture of a boat. Do your very best,” she instructed.

I was excited. I specialized in drawing boats, particularly the ships of the United States Navy. My mother always praised my boat pictures.

With the precision ordinarily reserved for the drafting tables of the shipyard at Norfolk, Virginia, I crafted what I believed was a perfectly scaled drawing of a U.S. Navy battleship. The pictures with which I was familiar showed battleship decks lined with waving sailors, I decided to do the same. That added touch, I concluded would certainly result in extra credit for my art project.

Before returning our artwork, the teacher took the opportunity to give a lesson. I do not recall everything she said that day. I do, however, distinctly recall that she held up my drawing as an illustration of how not to draw a boat. “This child,” she patiently explained, “only used one color. He drew the entire boat in black crayon. I am not certain what all these lines are on the deck. I suppose they are people, but I cannot really tell.”

Part of me wanted to jump to my feet and explain that, of course, the ship was black crayon on white paper. Every photograph of a ship that I had ever seen was in black and white. At our house, we did not subscribe to magazines with color photographs. And yes, those lines were people. I admit they were not very good people, but I was only six years old. I got tired of drawing stick figures, so I just used lines.

As much as I wanted to defend myself, I didn’t. I was too overwhelmed by the teacher’s criticism. On that day, I decided to give up drawing boats. In fact, I decided never again to submit my drawings to public scrutiny.

Please don’t misunderstand. I do not blame the teacher. She was young and inexperienced. Obviously she needed more teacher college lessons on being sensitive to the feelings of children. On the other hand, she was an outstanding judge of children’s art. She saw immediately what I was to confirm over the years. I have no gift for drawing boats. Most of all, however, I remember that day as the one in which I was introduced to the awesome power of FUD.

You may not be familiar with the expression, but I suspect nearly everyone has had the experience. The term FUD was first used in the 1920s to refer to a common sales technique. When the customer was thinking about buying your competitor’s product, destroy the customer’s confidence in the competition by applying the awesome power of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. “That company does not service what they sell.” “That is a new company. They don’t have the experience we have.” “That is an old company. They are stuck in the past.” FUD is the sales term for tearing down the competition by introducing the awesome power of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Of course, FUD is experienced in more settings than widget sales. For instance, talk radio is little more than a bountiful application of fear, uncertainty, and doubt to current events. The success of negative political advertisement is largely due to the power of FUD. By introducing fear, uncertainty, and doubt, the electorate’s confidence in a candidate is undermined. There are work places where spreading FUD has been raised to an art form. Some marriages seem committed to destroying one’s significant other by the liberal application of FUD. Some parents never miss an opportunity to undermine the self-confidence of their children by finding ways to make them doubt their possibilities. When important people in our lives die, fear and uncertainty about the future are commonly experienced.

I experienced FUD in a first grade art lesson on boat drawing. In the twinkling of an eye, I went from a self-confident little boy to a quivering mass of devastated protoplasm. Such is the power of FUD. It happens. There is nothing rare about the experience of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. These voracious destroyers of confident living linger at the edge of life, waiting for an opportunity to rush in and take charge.

The image that comes to mind is the crab pot in a fish market. These don’t need lids because any crab trying to escape is always pulled back in by the others. As Michael Corleone puts it in Godfather III, “Just when I thought I was out… they pulled me back in.” That can and does happen. When we least expect it, some person or experience can grab hold with claws of fear, uncertainty, and self-doubt. As people of faith, our challenge is to find a way to live confidently and victoriously in a world where the awesome power of FUD is an ever-present possibility.

The gospel lesson for today comes from the first nineteen verses of the final chapter of the book of John. I submit that this story both portrays the power of FUD and offers some guidance on how to deal with it.

The setting was after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and seven of the apostles were fishing on the Sea of Galilee. Think about that for a moment. That was the job they had before they met Jesus. They had already encountered the risen Christ. Jesus had already charged them saying, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The Christ had already breathed on them the power of the Holy Spirit. He had already empowered them to forgive the sins of others (John 20:21-22).

The world awaited the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and they were charged with spreading the word. They had been called to change the world. One would have thought that they would be excited to get started on this new ministry. They were not, however, “chomping at the bit” to get going. Simon Peter said, “I am going fishing” and six other apostles joined him.

Why did they do that? There must be some fear, uncertainty, and doubt at work. “How can we continue without Jesus? He was our leader. We are just common hill folk from Galilee. Nobody is going to listen to us. How can we preach to the world? We have trouble putting a sentence together.”

Perchance the full text of what Simon Peter said that day was, “Come on, fellas. I am going fishing. At least we know how to do that. Any of you want to go with me?” And so, about sundown, seven apostles got into a boat, pushed off from shore, spent the entire night fishing, and did not catch a single fish. I am sure that failure only deepened their spiritual crisis. “We are failures at fishing for fish, how can we succeed at fishing for the children of God?”

Just as dawn was breaking, a stranger called to them from the shore. “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some” (v. 6). As a group of professional fishermen, it must have seemed a silly suggestion to try the other side of their narrow boat, but they did it anyway.

As they struggled with the weight of a net of fish, one of the apostles recognized that the stranger was really Jesus. That apostle told Peter and Peter swam to shore. The remaining fishermen struggled to beach the overweight boat. When they arrived, they found Jesus cooking breakfast.

Let’s step back a little and assess what was happening. The opening of the story portrayed symptoms of FUD. Their little group was so discombobulated by the events of the past several weeks that several went back to being fishermen; only to discover that they could not even do that very well. Then Jesus appeared to them and provided guidance for getting through times of FUD. That guidance is what I would call the ABCs of getting through times of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Let’s look at this.

A: When under the influence of FUD learn the overall lesson from John 21. Get some perspective. People were dealing with fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the first century. They got through it and so can we. When zapped by the power of FUD, refuse to slide into the despair of “oh woe is me — nobody knows the misery I know.” FUD has been and remains a common human experience. Over the centuries, multitudes have experienced failure at fishing and first grade boat drawing. Fear from being threatened, uncertainty about our future, and crippling self-doubt are common to the human experience. When we keep that reality in mind, the experience of FUD becomes more manageable.

B: Accept that getting through FUD requires trusting God and stepping out in faith. Notice that the apostles did not recognize Jesus standing on the shore. He was a stranger when he called, “Throw the net on the other side of the boat.”

That suggestion must not have made much sense. These were professional fishermen. They must have already tried the other side of the boat. They did not, however, argue the point. They just did it and they discovered it worked.

There is much about our faith that doesn’t necessarily seem reasonable. Things like love your enemies; instead of revenge, do good to those who hate you; understand that the last shall be first; if offended, turn the other cheek. These things do not seem reasonable, but like putting the net on the other side of the boat, they work. Trust God. Trust the teachings of the faith. Step out in faith and keep on keeping on.

C: Remember that tomorrow is coming. The apostles fished all night and didn’t catch a thing. Then came the dawn and everything changed. What a wonderful reminder that life comes to us in daily segments. Today may be the absolute worst day of your life, but tomorrow is coming.

A friend of mine loves to preach an Easter sermon in which he reminds the congregation of an important lesson from resurrection weekend. When all seems lost, just “wait three days.” When faced with great difficulty, don’t panic; don’t despair, don’t lose hope, just wait a few days. Perhaps with the dawn of a new day you will be given strength when today all you feel is weakness. Perhaps with a new day you will find resolution to what seems impossible today. Eventually the agony of today will succumb to inexorable passage of time. Tomorrow is always coming and with it will come new possibilities. Hang on to that great truth.

I wish I could tell you that the awesome power of FUD can be avoided or at least easily defeated. That is not true. We live as imperfect people in an imperfect world. Therefore, the promise of our faith is not to avoid fear, uncertainty, and doubt. The promise of our faith is that we can live confidently and victoriously when the possibility of FUD lingers at the edge of life.

Keep the threat in perspective. Trust God and step out in faith. Never lose hope in what tomorrow will bring. Most of all, believe not only that Jesus was alive back then, but he lives today. The power of the risen Christ is still set free. We can connect with that power and be strengthened by it. Because he lives, we can face tomorrow and be unafraid. Our fears can be conquered. Our uncertainties and self-doubt can be handled. That is the great promise of our faith.

Thanks be to God for that. Amen and Amen.