Big Kid Boogeymen
Ebola. School shootings. ISIS. Cancer.
Do any of those things strike fear in your heart? These are what I refer to as the big-kid boogeymen.
This is a scary world we live in. Right now, as I type, my husband is watching the news and I am hearing about a woman who tried to strangle another woman with a phone cord and steal her 10-week old baby. The world is full of crazies.
Some of the horrific images I have seen on Facebook lately have literally made me physically ill, to the point where I have to put my phone down and walk away in tears, crying to God, "Why? Why God??"
I wish God would explain it to me now...but He whispers to my soul, "In time. But for now, peace. Be still."
Is the world worse now than ever before? I doubt it. There are so many stories of war and famine and annihilation in the Bible. Murder and violence are certainly nothing new. Did you know that at the time of Jesus' birth, King Herod ordered all the male infants in Bethlehem, two years old and younger, to be killed? (Matthew 2:16) If that happened today, how would the world react? Imagine that happening in the city where you live.
The different is our ability to communicate and spread images and information. Whether true or false, is totally irrelevant it seems. While information can be useful, it can also be used to control us, to strike fear into our hearts, and to render us powerless and paralyzed.
My grandson, who loves the swimming pool, was with me one afternoon this past summer. We were playing his favorite game, "1-2-3-JUMP!" He would stand bravely on the side of the pool and I would count. Somewhere between two and three, he would leap fearlessly to my waiting arms. He was just two-years old and learning to talk, and I'll never forget, one day as I moved toward the side of the pool to put him back up on the deck for another round, he noticed the pool liner (which is supposed to look like rocks) somehow looked like a 'boogeyman' to him. He literally tried to climb up my body from my waist to the top of my head.
"No! Gammie! No! Boogeyman get me!"
I wasn't sure, at first, what he was talking about, but as I watched his eyes and saw where his fat, little finger was pointing, I realized that he was seeing what he perceived as a face, a 'boogeyman' face, hiding in the rocks and shadows of the pool liner.
I had to show him that it was safe, there was no boogeyman hiding in the pool. I reached out and touched the surface of the pool liner and said, "Nope. No boogeyman. Just rocks. I promise, baby, there's nothing there to get you."
Then each time after that, as we approached the side of the pool he would repeat, "no boogeyman. just rocks," trying to convince himself of what I had promised him.
So many things in our 'big-kid' world cause us to live in fear, but God is holding us. He is saying to us, "For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand, and says to you, Do not fear, I will help you." (Isaiah 41:13)
Just last night, after hearing more troubling news about the Ebola virus that has now made it's way into the United States, I laid in bed, eyes wide open, asking my half-asleep husband if he thought we should start home-schooling our son to protect him. I was genuinely concerned. He agreed that we should consider it if the virus starts to spread as the news predicts it will. But what if we wait until it's too late?
How do I reconcile these things in my brain? How do I continue to live my life, fearlessly pursuing God's calling, without letting things like Ebola side-track me? I have decided that the most effect way is to pray about it more than I talk about it. Instead of talking (commiserating) with my small-group sisters, who are as powerless to fix things as I am, I will talk about it to the One who is ABLE!
I can remember, as a kid, asking my mother, "Can I ________?" (drive the car, go to the movies, whatever it was I wanted at the moment.) Without even taking her eyes off the newspaper she was reading, she would teach me a lesson in grammar. "You can, but you may not."
"Huh?"
I had the ability to do whatever it was I was asking, but I didn't have permission. I can do it. But I may not do it at this time. I hated grammar lessons.
Our God is able. Priscilla Shirer spoke about this at the Women of Faith conference last weekend, she said, "Whether or not God will do it is a question of His sovereignty, NOT His ability."
Ladies, if there's one thing we can put our faith in it's that our God IS ABLE.
He will avenge His children. He promised us that. Revelation 6:10 says, "They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"" (NIV) In the case of vengeance, it's not a matter of IF, it's a matter of WHEN.
For now, let us exercise a peace that passes all understanding. A peace that baffles our enemy and leaves him perplexed at his inability to shake us.
John 14:27 reads "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (NIV)
"MY" peace. HIS peace. The peace of Jesus Christ. Peace like a river, in my soul.
Bye, bye boogeyman. Bye, bye.
Be blessed!
Do any of those things strike fear in your heart? These are what I refer to as the big-kid boogeymen.
This is a scary world we live in. Right now, as I type, my husband is watching the news and I am hearing about a woman who tried to strangle another woman with a phone cord and steal her 10-week old baby. The world is full of crazies.
Some of the horrific images I have seen on Facebook lately have literally made me physically ill, to the point where I have to put my phone down and walk away in tears, crying to God, "Why? Why God??"
I wish God would explain it to me now...but He whispers to my soul, "In time. But for now, peace. Be still."
Is the world worse now than ever before? I doubt it. There are so many stories of war and famine and annihilation in the Bible. Murder and violence are certainly nothing new. Did you know that at the time of Jesus' birth, King Herod ordered all the male infants in Bethlehem, two years old and younger, to be killed? (Matthew 2:16) If that happened today, how would the world react? Imagine that happening in the city where you live.
The different is our ability to communicate and spread images and information. Whether true or false, is totally irrelevant it seems. While information can be useful, it can also be used to control us, to strike fear into our hearts, and to render us powerless and paralyzed.
My grandson, who loves the swimming pool, was with me one afternoon this past summer. We were playing his favorite game, "1-2-3-JUMP!" He would stand bravely on the side of the pool and I would count. Somewhere between two and three, he would leap fearlessly to my waiting arms. He was just two-years old and learning to talk, and I'll never forget, one day as I moved toward the side of the pool to put him back up on the deck for another round, he noticed the pool liner (which is supposed to look like rocks) somehow looked like a 'boogeyman' to him. He literally tried to climb up my body from my waist to the top of my head.
"No! Gammie! No! Boogeyman get me!"
I wasn't sure, at first, what he was talking about, but as I watched his eyes and saw where his fat, little finger was pointing, I realized that he was seeing what he perceived as a face, a 'boogeyman' face, hiding in the rocks and shadows of the pool liner.
I had to show him that it was safe, there was no boogeyman hiding in the pool. I reached out and touched the surface of the pool liner and said, "Nope. No boogeyman. Just rocks. I promise, baby, there's nothing there to get you."
Then each time after that, as we approached the side of the pool he would repeat, "no boogeyman. just rocks," trying to convince himself of what I had promised him.
So many things in our 'big-kid' world cause us to live in fear, but God is holding us. He is saying to us, "For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand, and says to you, Do not fear, I will help you." (Isaiah 41:13)
Just last night, after hearing more troubling news about the Ebola virus that has now made it's way into the United States, I laid in bed, eyes wide open, asking my half-asleep husband if he thought we should start home-schooling our son to protect him. I was genuinely concerned. He agreed that we should consider it if the virus starts to spread as the news predicts it will. But what if we wait until it's too late?
How do I reconcile these things in my brain? How do I continue to live my life, fearlessly pursuing God's calling, without letting things like Ebola side-track me? I have decided that the most effect way is to pray about it more than I talk about it. Instead of talking (commiserating) with my small-group sisters, who are as powerless to fix things as I am, I will talk about it to the One who is ABLE!
I can remember, as a kid, asking my mother, "Can I ________?" (drive the car, go to the movies, whatever it was I wanted at the moment.) Without even taking her eyes off the newspaper she was reading, she would teach me a lesson in grammar. "You can, but you may not."
"Huh?"
I had the ability to do whatever it was I was asking, but I didn't have permission. I can do it. But I may not do it at this time. I hated grammar lessons.
Our God is able. Priscilla Shirer spoke about this at the Women of Faith conference last weekend, she said, "Whether or not God will do it is a question of His sovereignty, NOT His ability."
Ladies, if there's one thing we can put our faith in it's that our God IS ABLE.
He will avenge His children. He promised us that. Revelation 6:10 says, "They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"" (NIV) In the case of vengeance, it's not a matter of IF, it's a matter of WHEN.
For now, let us exercise a peace that passes all understanding. A peace that baffles our enemy and leaves him perplexed at his inability to shake us.
John 14:27 reads "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (NIV)
"MY" peace. HIS peace. The peace of Jesus Christ. Peace like a river, in my soul.
Bye, bye boogeyman. Bye, bye.
Be blessed!
You R.O.C.K.E.D. this my friend!
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