When I was in kindergarten, I was petrified of lightning and thunder. One summer day when my parents were out and my sister was babysitting me, a huge thunderstorm rolled in. After witnessing that bright flash followed by that violent crash of thunder, I ran. I zipped right out my front door; barefoot, crying, and screaming as the thunder relentlessly pounded the sky. I ended up in my neighbor's front door, pleading to stay with them until the storm passed.
Fast forward to my junior year of high school: I was home alone one February night babysitting my nephew who was around 5 months at the time. I was in the middle of feeding him his dinner when I noticed an unfamiliar light glaring through my window. I peaked out the window and noticed a suspiciously idle truck halfway up my driveway. My 16 year old brain immediately flashed back to my 6 year old brain of irrational panic; without sparing another moment in that living room, I grabbed my baby nephew and ran out my back door; again, ending up in my neighbor's yard.
(Disclaimer: I ran barefoot in the snow and ended up finding out that the man in the truck was our plow-guy dropping off our bill. No comment.)
Do you notice a reoccurring theme here? When I am placed in a situation that is intimidating and random, my initial reaction is to drop whatever I'm doing and run away. Maybe this is something you can relate to. I realize as we get older, our simple fears seem to get more complicated. Instead of thunderstorms it escalates to our finances, relationships, and just that overall pressure to do well. It went from simple storms and trucks to people we love and how to trust.
"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7
Take a moment and think: what exactly are you afraid of?
Fear of your realness making people change their vision of who you are? Fear of people looking down on you? Fear of failing at your representation to the world? Fear of enduring through the difficult? Fear of a relationship not working out? Fear of taking a chance in something you have no guarantee of what the result would be? The list can go on, but our fear is essentially derived from anything we aren't able to be in control of as well as guaranteed a happy ending.
"All people are like grass and their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. The word of God endures forever." Isaiah 40:6-8 [NIV]
What if I told you your timidity in the opportunity of chance is the exact thing withholding you from living out your freedom in Christ. Do you ever find yourself feeling powerless, vulnerable, unloved, and scatterbrained because you're too busy thinking about the people around you; about the choices they're making and how you think they are going to affect you?
That must rip you apart late at night. You know, when you're trying to go to sleep but those thoughts seem to creep up out of nowhere.
Well, let me tell you one thing: Jesus does NOT like to see His beautiful bride up late at night with tears filling their eyes when they should be resting.
Don't run away from your groom who sacrificed it all to love you. Don't be that runaway bride.
He is faithful. And that is a fact. All you need to do is learn how to trust.
We're people and trusting what seems to make no current sense is not a natural thing to do. You're literally fighting against your flesh. Trust isn't a feeling. It's an action we do after making a choice.
And when you decide to trust, fight. Fight against what your flesh impulsively wants to do and submit. God knows you don't understand right now, but know that He is faithful.
Our hope is in Him, not in the seemingly sketchy situation you may be finding yourself in. Whatever He declares will always follow through.
He is faithful. Trust that He will reroute the path back into the promise.
This is a reality everybody has to face. For me, it is a daily act of surrender for His peace and perspective to come in. The days that I choose not to give it to God are the days when that unexpected storm rolls in leaving me so scared I want to drop what I'm doing and run away. We may be messy individuals, but Jesus always looks at us as His beautiful, blameless bride. No matter how far we run, He promised to never leave our side. Instead of running away out of fear, run straight into His arms. He is faithful.
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