Skip to main content

I WIll Not Fear


           From my distress I called upon the Lord; The Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me? (Psalm 118:5-6)

          When my next-door neighbor and I were in kindergarten, we both got given the standard “stranger danger” talk. My neighbor’s teacher found me and told me that I needed to walk her home because she was afraid of all the strangers she saw. I’d planned to anyway, but I didn’t understand her fears. It was years before I realized that she’d taken the word “stranger” very literally. Every person she saw that she didn’t know was a stranger to her, and therefore likely to kidnap her. She got over it fairly quickly.
         Then, in the 80s, someone abducted Adam Walsh, and the nation’s focus once again turned to how dangerous people can be, especially people who aren’t like us. Colleges now feel obligated to provide safe places for their students. These places aren’t a site to find protection from someone wielding a gun or knife, but from someone who says things that make the student uncomfortable.
            In a similar vein, some folks have adopted the attitude that their social media page/wall is theirs, and no one is welcome to challenge their perspectives. It’s their safe place. I understand their thinking, but I have to shake my head at the idea. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
         I’d like to think that verses like today’s are the reason for my lack of comprehension. But it’s not that I don’t fear what men can do to me. It’s not that I don’t take at least some precautions. I just don’t get anxious about what another person can do unless I think there’s a real likelihood that he’ll do it.
         The sad thing is that while I don’t have “stranger danger” fear like my friend from kindergarten, I have a rejection fear that runs just as high. That is the fear I must lay before the Father. That, and what something that is not a man can do are why I need this passage.
         Whatever your fears, these are your verses.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more