When You Are Afraid, Remember This

The later it got the harder my heart pounded. Where is he?

Hours before, my husband, Luke, left to do work in the woods nearby. Now, I stared out the window with a lump in my throat as the sky pitched a black tent overhead.

My dear husband has been known to spend countless hours in the woods and his internal time clock isn’t always the same as the rest of the world’s, but I assumed the setting sun would drive him back to civilization and home for dinner.

Reason gave me her best shot, but Panic screamed so loud I couldn’t hear anything else. And when my kids’ bed time rolled around and still no sign of Daddy, I decided it’s go-time.

My rescue mission started with a call to Luke’s mom. She dragged Luke’s dad into the car and sped my way while I rallied more troops for the search party. I alerted my sister and Luke’s sister. Surely, with all of our level heads combined we would devise a brilliant plan.

We chattered about when to call in the helicopters, and before long I had all of the kids kneeling in the living room while I cried tears of fear to God. With the house phone in my right ear and my cell phone up to my left ear, I strategized with both Luke’s mom and his sister. I gave play-by-play analysis as we all worked each other into a frenzy. Panic pulled me under. I thrashed against the current of chaos, gasping for air.

In a brief moment of reason – just before Luke’s parents took off into the woods – I remembered the shop building. Since the other option was off-roading into the wilderness with no map and no idea where to go, I thought the well-lit shop about 100 yards from our house might be worth a look. Their car whipped around the corner to find a daddy hard at work, putting together a ride-on car the kids got for Christmas.

Luke’s mom leaped from the car with tears in her eyes and squeezed her son. “Go home!” she cried.

Sometimes, when fear nibbles away at our souls, we find safety in solutions.

So we kick into gear to build plans to protect us and the ones we love. And if that still doesn’t feel just right, we weave nets to catch us should we fall. But motion doesn’t always equal movement.

When we take matters into our own hands, too often we weave in circles and land as prey tangled up in our own webs. Like that night at my house …

I reported the good news to all I’d alerted and when my missing person walked through the door I didn’t know whether to hug him or hit him.

I dropped the phones and fell on the floor. Yes, my man was safe. No, I had nothing to fear. The problem was I had already followed that current down the river, and it soaked me with a whole mess of emotions.

Luke tried not to laugh when I broke down in tears. “Babe, I was just down the road the whole time,” he said so calmly.

In my defense – a little heads up would have been nice.

The good news is, God gives us another option.

 

God weaves all things together to set us free instead of set a trap. 

We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.” Romans 8:28 (VOICE)

Even in the middle of our scariest moments, we can count on God and His plans for us. He is not only present with us, but He is also working for us. Crafting, weaving, orchestrating everything toward something good.

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