When I feel the need to stop and rest a bit but want to keep my hands busy, I sometimes reach for a Christian coloring book. Often the words are either from scripture or are meant to inspire and can be presented in a variety of ways. Recently, I had to choose how to color two opposing words; how do I choose the color for each?

The Colorful Blessings coloring book by The Coloring Cafe are whimsical illustrations that allow me to take a break from life. Usually I enjoy the challenge of identifying what colored pencil I want to use within the picture. This page, however, has only three words in big, bold, block letters: FAITH over FEAR. While there are various patterned squares surrounding the central text, they pale in comparison to the message. What color is faith? What color is fear? How do you balance the color choices? 

I colored the word FAITH first. Some may choose a sunshiny yellow to make the word glow on the page. Others may choose red reminiscent of the fire of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps another may choose a shade of blue, especially if it evokes the color of a pool of water. My instinct was to reach out to the richest green I had, not too dark, but a saturated green. I colored the first three letters and then paused. Should I have used several different shades of green? But since almost half the word was already colored, it felt the right thing to do was to complete it in the chosen color. I’m glad I used only one color as it matches the boldness of the letters. For me, green is the color of hope. I don’t think you can have faith without having hope. Faith gives us the ability to lean on God for all we need and to see us not just through our life here on earth, but into eternity with Him. We cannot see or know what life will be like after death, but we know that our souls will live on because of the hope we have through Jesus.

Now for the word FEAR. I considered a dark purple to try to convey the sinister nature of fear. Orange was another option because it evokes danger and caution. I was even trying to see if I had or could mix two colors for a “cat-puke” color, which would be a horrid mix of mustard yellow and brown. Then my eye spotted the perfect pencil for the job. This one actually had a name for the color: gray mist. How evocative of the word fear is a gray that is only almost on the page. This wasn’t a pale gray, but a medium gray that colored lightly on the page. The word FEAR couldn’t compete with the word FAITH with those color choices. 

As I was filling in the letters for FEAR, I started thinking about what it is. Fear is when we recognize that we are not in control of a situation and/or do not know what the outcome of an event will be and the desire for that control. When we feel that we are fearful, we need to call on God to help us through. Times of fear are when we need to pray, “Jesus, I trust in You.” When we trust in God, we surrender the outcomes of life to his Providence. He always wants to richly bless us. While His timeline may not match ours, He will guide us through the most trying of circumstances. Just like Simon the Cyrene helped Jesus to carry His cross, Jesus helps us to carry our crosses, no matter how heavy they seem. 

True faith will always overcome fear. True faith requires us to cultivate an active, participatory relationship with God. Daily prayers, Mass, the Sacraments as well as helping in our communities all serve to strengthen our faith. And a vibrant faith will make the mist of fear burn away through the glory and grace of God.