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.
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