I know a lot about fearing things.
I make fearing things my job.
I fear my kids being abducted. I fear getting run over while getting our mail. I fear someone breaking into our home in the middle of the night and killing us. I fear being mugged. I fear posting photos of my children online because of predators tracing them and hunting us down. I fear my husband being killed. I fear my children will fall right through the screens of our new windows. I fear my toddler tripping into the toilet and drowning. I fear my baby will get some sort of strange infection from all the bizarre things I find her eating.
I fear some pretty ridiculous stuff. I could go on all day here, but I think you get the point.
And why do I fear these things? Well, mostly because I have heard of it happening to someone. Do I know these people it has happened to? Some yes, but mostly no.
The truth is our world is scary, sure, but I can't change that fact. Is it likely any of these things will happen to me? No, not statistically. Is it possible? Yes.
I used to joke with my mom that she was Worry Wart 1, also known as WW1 at our home. My sister quickly took on the WW2 name as she became a mother when I was 11. We all truly saw WW3 in the making with me. Its in my blood to worry.
I presume it is in yours, too.
This world is backwards that way. It trains us to fear ridiculous things so we stop fearing the truly fearful ones. The media blasts us repeatedly with the same story of the child who drowned. Lord, have mercy on that child and family. Is it likely mine will drown, too? No.
But now I have good reason to lay awake at night fearing it.
The reality is I should fear the loss of their faith much more than I fear the loss of their body.
That sounds a whole lot more holy than I can be, though, in this sinner's body. Lord, have mercy.
"The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?"
Psalm 27:1
The world is changing, sure, but sin has been here since that first bite of fruit in the garden. It really isn't any more dangerous than it was then. We just happen to be more informed of the dangers surrounding us.
As Christian women, we are even more informed of these dangers, because we know sin. We see sin. We recognize, through Christ, what we should truly fear. We do this because we are baptized into Him.
It may be in my blood to worry, but it is in Christ's Water and Word to lay it on Him.
A very wise pastor friend of mine shared the prayer below as a help in my life.
It is my prayer that it will serve you, as well.
O most loving Father, You want us to give thanks for all things,
TO FEAR NOTHING BUT LOSING YOU,
and to lay all our cares on You, knowing that You care for us.
Strengthen me in my trust in You amid the fears of this life which are many.
Grant that the anxieties of this troubled life may not separate us from Your love shown to us in Jesus Christ and Grant that Your strength is made perfect in our weakness through Him who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
AMEN.
