Category Archives: God’s character

Mary’s Thoughts on Fear

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The last couple of days we’ve been listening to a patient’s view of living with deadly cancer. Tonight Mary shares what works for her in fending off fear:

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Whenever fear creeps into my thoughts, I know it hasn’t come from God. The Bible flat-out says, “God has not given us the spirit of fear.” (2 Timothy 1:7) So if it doesn’t come from him, it’s coming from my enemy, Satan. Because of that, I need to quickly reject it, making sure fear doesn’t take hold of me. The honest truth, though, is that I’ve had to struggle hard against it.

One fear that’s assaulted me multiple times this year centers around my grandchildren. When they first heard I had cancer, they began praying God would heal me. So my concern is that after I die, these trusting children might be angry with God for not answering their prayers, and turn against him.

With ten grandsRight now they’re praying in the no-holds-barred way children do, which is why I worry. After I’m gone, I envision them asking, “If God loves me, why did he let my grandma die?” I want them all to love him no matter what happens with me, but that isn’t always easy for a child. Though I know I can’t control their lives, I have to fight fear over this issue.

I have to repeatedly remember that their relationships with the Lord are in his capable hands. My continual prayer is for their faith to hold and even somehow grow as a result of my death. I’m thankful for God’s reminder that he’s caring for them now and will care for them then, especially where faith issues are concerned.

One day a while back, our daughter Julia gave me a plaque that sits on my kitchen counter. It simply says, “Trust in the Lord.” God has used that short message to bring me back to reality many times by dispelling fear. Of course I don’t want to leave my grandchildren any time soon, but that decision isn’t up to me.

Trust in the Lord

The most effective antidote to fear is Scripture. It has the power to settle me and show me what’s true and what isn’t. God’s Word is an anchor that holds when storms come, because it has a power no other book has. It’s alive and active. It acts toward me in a way nothing else can, pointing me to the Lord and reminding me I’m not alone in my anxiety. He’s there battling the enemy alongside me, and his Word is a weapon against fear that never fails.

I don’t know how I could manage without the Lord accompanying me through this cancer. There isn’t a day that I don’t sense his closeness, and I’ll never stop thanking him for it. He has promised to be my ever-ready help whenever I need him and guarantees that my future is secure with him in heaven.

[ Tomorrow Mary will talk about you, blog readers. ]

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” (Psalm 37:5)

Booted

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Emerald's shoesDressing toddlers is tricky. Often they have their own outfit-preferences and make them loudly known. But even when they comply with Mommy’s choices, there’s no guarantee they’ll stay clothed, especially when it comes to shoes.

The other day, Nelson, Birgitta, Emerald, and I were running errands together shortly after a foot-deep snowfall. As we got out of the car at our first stop, we noticed Emerald’s snow boots were missing, and she was in stocking feet. We searched the car but came up empty, leaving us no choice but to carry her… boot-less.

Once we were back at home, we thought surely we’d find her cute little black boots there, but no. This was especially frustrating, since they were new, and the snow was deep.

Lonely cold bootThat’s when Nelson headed out to shovel, and wouldn’t you know, right off the bat he spotted a boot peeking out of the snow from where it must have slipped off Emerald’s foot. Looking for its mate, he poked around, stirred the drifts, and carefully watched each shovel-full of snow as it flew through the air. But #2 never appeared.

Later we scoured the house again, looked once more in the car, and even prayed, but it wasn’t to be. Now we have one lonely boot awaiting its mate, useless without it.

Sometimes that’s exactly the way we are in our relationship to God: We’re off somewhere all by ourselves, unaware that we’re missing something very important. Oh, we can function on our own, just like Emerald could walk in the snow with one boot. But until she’s wearing both, their true purpose can’t be realized.

God wants us to come as close to him as two boots in a pair. When we do, we’ll learn about the exciting plans he has for us. But until we partner with him, our true purposes remain unrealized.

Lonely bootAmazingly, many of us choose that option, to go it alone, because we like the idea of controlling our own destinies. God has a destiny in mind for each of us too, but he’s not going to force it on anyone who doesn’t want it.

Some of us might say, “Because God is God, it’s possible his plans are superior to mine. So I’ll take a look at it, and then I’ll weigh one against the other.” But God doesn’t play that game. It’s either commit or forfeit. We either place our faith in him, or by default, we place it in ourselves.

It’s our choice.

As for me, all I have to do is picture Emerald walking in the snow with one boot on to be reminded that life works better in pairs – especially when one half of it is the Lord himself.

“As for me, it is good to be near God.” (Psalm 73:28)

Catching a Vision

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Creative playWhen two-year-old Emerald and I play together, we enjoy a variety of simple pleasures: reading books, chasing bubbles, playing piano, drawing with markers. But most fun of all is watching her come up with her own creative “games.”

It was her idea to climb into an empty bathtub with her super-balls and stir them up till they fly around like hail in a hurricane. She does it every time she visits .

And she often asks me to reach for her half-dozen sippy-cups so she can stack them, match them with their appropriate lids, and arrange them in a circle like the numbers on a clock.

Vision.Though two-year-olds are total entertainment, maybe it’s more than that. Emerald may grow up to be a visionary, someone who dreams big and tries new things.

The other day she walked into the kitchen (after rummaging through my desk) with my magnifier glasses on her nose. After staring silently for the longest time, she finally just said, “Eyes.”

No doubt she meant, “My eyes can’t see right.” What she saw through them was blurred, but when I offered to take the glasses, she chose to keep them, walking through the house while gently turning her head this way and that to experiment with her new vision. She was fascinated.

VisionNot long ago I had a similar experience but with a non-visionary response. I found a pair of extreme magnifiers at a rummage sale and got a good laugh trying them on. But unlike Emerald’s desire to experience something new, I couldn’t wait to get them off. She pushed through positively; I gave up.

But of course eye-vision is one thing. Being a true visionary is something else. It means believing in an idea so completely that words like impossible, unlikely, or impractical aren’t roadblocks. Visionaries don’t hear even sharp criticism, because their drive to shoot for something fresh and new is so strong.

God knows all about being a visionary. Talk about a vision! His was to save corrupted mankind from sin, an impossible task from our perspective. But he saw through to the end result and ended up accomplishing exactly what he set out to do.

Now, as he offers salvation to each of us, we have to choose whether or not we’ll believe his vision about a sinless future in eternity with him. In a way, that calls for each of us to be a visionary.

We also have to be visionaries about the details. How will things go when we step out of this world and into the next? Since we don’t know for sure, we have to blend God’s word with trust in him. As we do, it’s best not to criticize or worry, which is what non-visionaries do. Instead we should simply “catch God’s vision” and expect that somehow everything is going to work out perfectly.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)