Tag Archives: Christians

Kicking Fear to the Curb

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Fear and I have had a relationship. More than a casual acquaintance.

But we’re going our separate ways! Hallelujah!

Why? “Courage is fear that calls on God.” *

You see, I don’t feel very courageous, never have. Always had an attack of nerves before reading a paper aloud in school. When I went to college, Speech 101 was recommended for first-semester freshman. I took a history course, then Spanish. I ended  up postponing Speech 101 until it was clear I had enough credits to graduate if I took it.

MOUNTAIN Old Rag KARL MKI may have acted courageously as a mom protecting my young son ~ but I never felt courageous. I dismissed those instances as a mother’s instinct acting without thinking.

And like many of us, I gritted my teeth and faced anxiety-provoking events like a job interview, first day at a new job, driving over a bridge on a mountain, moving to a new city, killing a spider. Some of these things one must face if they’re going to live a normal life. And even if I appeared put-together for a job interview ~ believe me, inside was a quivering chicken.

CASTLE - ARMORY entrance hallAnd, yes, there were occasions that, with a God-stiffened spine, I sailed into without anxiety ~ like leading a Bible Study class or spinal surgery (yeah, that’s real. LOL) Because we have a God whose armory is beyond comprehension.

A couple years ago I met Janet Thompson on-line. She impressed me and one of her projects intrigued me. She talked about bravery in everyday life. When I stopped to think of the battle that Christians are immersed in just by becoming Christians, and thought about the pitched battle raging in our culture, I realized one may be brave even if one isn’t asked to stand at the flag with a Bible, stand up in court, speak truth to the powerful like my friend Jill Stanek who testified to Congress again, or forced to kneel on a beach in Tripoli awaiting an ISIS sword.

EverydayBrave7-redJanet’s written a book, Everyday Brave, and I suspect I may find more incidents in my life that could require bravery. And I also suspect I’ll find encouragement and tools to use to exhibit bravery.

I’m so eager to read Everyday Brave! In the words sung by the Marvelettes, “Please, please Mister Postman, …the sooner the better.”

You can connect with Janet on Facebook. And the book at the publisher’s site here or your favorite bookseller.

*Janet Thompson, Everyday Brave

Blind? Blinded?

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Anyone else need some help?Hello, friends. I haven’t meant to be a stranger. But with computer crashes, loaners, hibernating data, my library of blog posts and notes has been unavailable. That’s OK though because, really, outside of work, I’ve been so distracted by “the state of the world” [euphemism for barbaric murders abounding], nothing has seemed appropriate.

Have you ever experienced the temporary blindness when you step inside from walking through a snowy field on a sunny day? The momentary blindness after a camera flash goes off right in front of you?

Or the opposite, when you walk out of a pitch black cave into intense sunlight? Our eyes can’t catch up with the transitions immediately, and we’re unable to see clearly or keep our eyes open against the brilliance. That off-balance state is what I’ve been experiencing lately as I try to comprehend the state of our world. How about you?

In the 1930’s and early 1940’s, many people claimed they did not see the impact of Hitler’s advances through Europe. They did not see the systematic slaughter of millions of Jews and others deemed undesirable, “racially inferior” or enemies of the state.

What would I have done? What would you have done?

ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups are marching through the middle-east slaughtering thousands of “undesirables” such as Christians, Jews, opposing factions. The atrocities reported, even shown via video, is too awful to describe for me.

And too awful to ignore. Therein is the dilemma. I cannot go and fight. And who would I search out if I could? I can speak, write, … and others are doing that admirably. I cannot ignore it, wish it away. I cry, I rage. I turn down the volume. I work and read and distract.

Yet, what can I do to make an impact? To stop this evil, bloody tide? What could you do?

If it were next door to me, perhaps I could intervene. Protect. Help. Call attention. But the horror is thousands of miles away. (Yet as near as the next room! I can hear it on the news. Oh, I hate to hear it.) If I were a soldier, I could enter the fray. I am no soldier.

But I am a prayer warrior. So I pray. Though groaning and uttering words seem so paltry an effort.

 

One of my morning devotional books* continually urges me to:

Keep my eyes on God.

Rest in His Presence.

Hold His hand and follow Him step by step.

Immerse myself in His Presence.

Be still in His Presence.

So, as my word for this year ~ CHOOSE ~ calls me to do, I choose to obey. I continually pray and come back to His Presence, and trust that in obeying God’s guidance to me through His Word and His speaking to my heart, I am doing what I can.

I must say though, that turning from the brilliance of His Presence to attending to this world’s business, sometimes leaves me flash blind, and I am unable to see anything at all. Perhaps that is why faith is described in Hebrews 11:1 as “the substance of things HOPED for, the evidence of THINGS NOT SEEN.”

*JESUS CALLING, by Sarah Young, 2004