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Cal's Pastoral Epistles
"He's Always By Our Side"
February 17, 2010
Max Lucado's inspirational calendar sits on the desk in my office. Each
day it offers a word of hope for the living of our lives. The other day it
read, "Fear will always knock on your door. Just don't invite it in for dinner,
and for heaven's sake don't offer it a bed for the night."
What great imagery. Fear has a way of becoming real. If you live with it
long enough it takes on a personality. I can't tell you how many nights I
have let a worry or a fear pester me. When that happens it is like having a
person in the house with you. It nags at you and beats you down. It wakes
you up in the middle of the night and won't let you get back to sleep. When
you do get out of bed in the morning, you rise weary and unsettled and ill
equipped to face your day.
In one of the darkest periods of our nation's history, President Franklin
Roosevelt faced a nation on the brink of ruin. In his now famous first
inaugural address he addressed this subject head on. He said, "So, first of
all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear
itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed
efforts to convert retreat into advance."
Fear was paralyzing the nation. It made a bad situation even worse. It
always does. It steps in the way of reason. It blocks the path of action. It
stares down the affirmation of faith. In order to overcome this we need to
remember who is in charge. That's where our faith comes in.
Do you know how many times Jesus told his disciples not to be afraid?
He did it all the time. He wanted them to know that He was with them and
He would not abandon them. In the middle of a storm, when threatened by
the crowd, when on a hillside at night, Jesus reminded them that God would
be with them. That's good news for us too. When it seems like everyone
else has left us, God is still at our side, silently standing watch.
I like the illustration I heard about the coming of age ritual of one of the
Native American tribes from another era. They would cover the eyes of a
young man with a cloth and take him out into the woods. They would then
leave him there to survive the night. If he remained there all night, he would
pass the test and be considered a man.
The sounds, the dark images that appeared through his blindfold would
leave him frightened but he dare not speak out. He had been told that as the
first light of dawn approached he could remove the veil and find his way
home. At the appointed hour the young man would remove the blindfold
only to find that his father or uncle had been standing watch all night at a
safe distance away. He was never alone and in any danger at all.
So it is with us as God keeps watch. So don't let fear into your house.
Tell it to go away because you've already got company. With God in your
house there is no room for fear.
God Bless! See you at church. Cal.
February 17, 2010
Max Lucado's inspirational calendar sits on the desk in my office. Each
day it offers a word of hope for the living of our lives. The other day it
read, "Fear will always knock on your door. Just don't invite it in for dinner,
and for heaven's sake don't offer it a bed for the night."
What great imagery. Fear has a way of becoming real. If you live with it
long enough it takes on a personality. I can't tell you how many nights I
have let a worry or a fear pester me. When that happens it is like having a
person in the house with you. It nags at you and beats you down. It wakes
you up in the middle of the night and won't let you get back to sleep. When
you do get out of bed in the morning, you rise weary and unsettled and ill
equipped to face your day.
In one of the darkest periods of our nation's history, President Franklin
Roosevelt faced a nation on the brink of ruin. In his now famous first
inaugural address he addressed this subject head on. He said, "So, first of
all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear
itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed
efforts to convert retreat into advance."
Fear was paralyzing the nation. It made a bad situation even worse. It
always does. It steps in the way of reason. It blocks the path of action. It
stares down the affirmation of faith. In order to overcome this we need to
remember who is in charge. That's where our faith comes in.
Do you know how many times Jesus told his disciples not to be afraid?
He did it all the time. He wanted them to know that He was with them and
He would not abandon them. In the middle of a storm, when threatened by
the crowd, when on a hillside at night, Jesus reminded them that God would
be with them. That's good news for us too. When it seems like everyone
else has left us, God is still at our side, silently standing watch.
I like the illustration I heard about the coming of age ritual of one of the
Native American tribes from another era. They would cover the eyes of a
young man with a cloth and take him out into the woods. They would then
leave him there to survive the night. If he remained there all night, he would
pass the test and be considered a man.
The sounds, the dark images that appeared through his blindfold would
leave him frightened but he dare not speak out. He had been told that as the
first light of dawn approached he could remove the veil and find his way
home. At the appointed hour the young man would remove the blindfold
only to find that his father or uncle had been standing watch all night at a
safe distance away. He was never alone and in any danger at all.
So it is with us as God keeps watch. So don't let fear into your house.
Tell it to go away because you've already got company. With God in your
house there is no room for fear.
God Bless! See you at church. Cal.
Pastor Cal Lord writes these weekly epistles to
help us see God in every day things.
help us see God in every day things.
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