in His hands

I have been very behind on these reverb posts lately but only because we've just been having too much fun around here to stop and write. Athens is always the most fun during finals, partially because no one has class and partially because everyone gets a little stir crazy. The fact is that I'd rather be making memories than reflecting on them, but here in the quiet of the Sunday afternoon I'll stop my packing and boxing things in hopes of catching up a little bit.

I liked these prompts so I'm going to try and hit them one at a time, even if it takes me a little bit longer.

The prompt: When were you scared?

I don't get scared too often... but I admit that sometimes it doesn't take a whole lot.

Every now and then I'm afraid when I'm the only one home in our apartment at night time. Heights kind of scare me. I got scared when Daniel and I drove up a steep mountain in the rain. I got a little scared the night CK3 played murder in the dark in the condemned part of the auditorium after midnight. Sometimes I'm a little scared going to the doctor. I get really scared if I miss an assignment at school. I get scared on the rare occasion I have to drive in the snow. Traffic scares me. I was terrified driving up a curvy mountain in he dark. I got scared the time Adam told me my car got towed... it didn't. If you jump out from behind something, I guarantee I will scream. I don't watch scary movies and I don't do haunted houses.

But sometimes big, life things scare me too.

I get a little scared when things change or when I have no idea where I'm going. Big decisions can terrify me. I'll admit that I'm scared right now-- scared of moving away and leaving everything behind. Sometimes I get scared when I know the Lord is calling me to big things. I get scared when I know He wants me to talk to someone or if He's calling me to do something out of my comfort zone. I think we all do.

We are each called to live in fear of the Lord. It took me a long time to begin to understand what that means (I probably still haven't grasped it fully.) I remember asking my Dnow leader as an 8th grader why it was that God wanted us to be afraid of Him. I'm pretty sure I probably let out a big sigh of relief when I learned that that isn't actually what that means. See, God doesn't call me to be scared of Him, even though He could have every right to do so. He is all power-- He could do whatever He wanted to, but He loves us and therefore we have nothing to be afraid of, no matter how many times we mess up. No, being in fear of the Lord looks a lot more like respect. I think some days I tend to forget that He is the holy, perfect God who's Glory blinded people in the Old Testament. I tend to boil Him down to a helpful friend (which He is) and not approach Him with quite as much fear as He deserves.

He is the God of peace, and therefore we have nothing in life to be afraid of. Yes, He calls us outside of our comfort zones. Sometimes He leaves us in places that make us feel as though we've got literally nothing left to grab hold of but our faith. But ultimately we can rest in the fact that He promises us continually that He has plans for our good. He lets us lie down in green pastures beside streams. He gives us rest, He hears us when we call out to Him, and He never lets us escape from the palm of His hand.

Several years ago I was on a mission trip to the Czech Republic and one afternoon when we were spent and everything seemed to be going wrong, a friend and I began to sing these words together:

He's got the whole world in His hands...

Everybody likely remembers this little song from Sunday school as a child and as we began to sing it that hot afternoon in Europe, it began to speak truth to the both of us. We started changing the words and inserting the things that were scaring us or stressing us out. (He's got missing the bus in His hands... He's got no more water in His hands... whatever it might be.) And as we sang it, we began to find such peace in the things that were out of our control with the simple reminder that God was working them for His purpose. Some days when it's all too much to handle, I still find myself doing this as an act of handing these things over to the Lord. He has them in His hands. Why in the world would we be afraid of them?

Fear is something that can be controlling to us if we do not hand it over to the Lord. It's rarely beneficial and almost always exhausting. What is it that you're afraid of that God is calling you to let go of? I'm going to go think about that for a while and then keep catching up on the prompts. Until then, friends!