I can remember being one of lead climbers on a high ropes course in the Costa Rican cloud forest. One of the students was trying to make it across something called “the x-rope.” Even though she had two lines attached to her harness, she thought she was going to fall. She desperately clung to the ropes, immobilized by fear. She thought she was going to die. Fear had overthrown her ability to listen. We calmly tried to instruct her, but to no avail. The only way to help her was to go out and get her.
She was terrified. She was kicking and screaming, “He’s going to kill me!” I tried to calmly reassure her and slowly and gently carry her, but she was in full panic mode. She was hooked to four lines and had no chance of falling. However, in her mind she thought she was hanging by a thread 75 feet above the ground, and could fall at any moment. Moving across an x-rope is hard enough. Moving across an x-rope while carrying a person who is fighting every move you make is exhausting! It seemed like an eternity before we got to the platform. Even on the safety of the platform, it took a lot of comforting to calm her down.
Don’t we do the same thing with God? A crisis comes up, and we go into full panic mode. When we lose our job we panic: “How am I going to pay the bills? Am I going to have to move? How will this impact the family? I feel like such a failure. How am I going to find a job in this economy?” When a loved one dies, we feel lost without them, and wonder how we are going to carry on. When a relationship ends, we are devastated. We don’t know how to move forward. When conflicts arise at home or work, we go into a shell or become defensive and lash out.
We forget Psalms 46:1, which tells us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble.” God is watching over us. He’s got us.
As I look back on my life, there have been times I have acted like I was dangling from a thread. I have been in full panic mode. I have lashed out and let fear control me. I have hurt those I loved. Meanwhile, God was right there, bringing me to safety.
How do we miss God presence? Our focus is on the wrong place. That day on the high ropes course, if the girl would have listened and trusted me, she could have seen the help I was providing. But her fear took over.
Likewise, when a crisis hits our lives, we panic. We may cry out to God for help, but we don’t listen. Do we really believe God is our refuge and strength? Do we truly believe he is present?
I confess that even as a pastor there have been times I have intellectually espoused these propositional truths but struggled to live them out. Our Christian faith is not merely an intellectual exercise. God allows these crises to enter our lives so we can more deeply participate in his drama of redemption. God wants us to stop fighting him and trust him.
That doesn’t mean that we go into denial and pretend everything is okay. Our fear and pain are real. God doesn’t deny that, nor should we. We need to follow the Psalmist’s example and openly bring our pain and fear to God. Jesus encourages us to come him when we are burdened and he will give us rest (Matt. 11:28).
As the Apostle Paul writes in Roman 8:31, “If God is for us who can be against us?” But like the girl on the x-rope, we often focus on the fear rather than on the one who saves. Are you currently crippled by fear? Bring it to the one who can handle your fear and pain. God’s got you.
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Dave,
What a well written article. I, too, have learned, by the circumstances that God has allowed, that fear blocked my willingness and even my ability to fully trust God. As often as I have experienced abandonment in my life, since my childhood to my present life, I didn’t fully trust God to care and see me through my circumstance. I wanted to so badly, but I wouldn’t stop to listen to Him calling me, directing me. I truly ran from Him. Believing that He loved me, He sent His Son to die on the cross for me, I knew where I would spend eternity, it wasn’t enough for this man that lived in fear. When I finally cried out, “God, I can’t do this any more, I need Your help!” On my knees crying before Him and waiting for Him to really love me, care for me, direct me, He did. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that led me to buy a certain book about grace in a marriage, yet grace is to extended to everyone. In Houston, getting to head to the airport to make flight home, I stopped at my favorite Christian book store to buy a couple of Christian novels. I saw the book “Grace Filled Marriage” first, but I did not want to buy the book, saying some other time. I made my purchase, got into my rental car and turned the ignition only the prompting was so strong I had to stop and go in and buy the book. Funny, it was the first of the four new books I read. In two months, I am on business in Riverside heading home on a Friday and God’s Spirit, again, was prompting me. “Doug, I want you to go to your mom and dad’s gravesite. Of course, I didn’t want to go. But His Spirit would not let it rest, He prompted a second, I refused. Then a third, I went. At the gravesite, I said, “Okay God, I am here, what do you want me to do?” I listened for His response, He did immediately. “you just finished reading the Grace Filled Marriage book. I gave you grace, now I want you to give grace to your parents.” So I did. Then the Lord gave me a verse the next day, “The Lord Himself goes before you, He is always with you. He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Don’t be discouraged, don’t be afraid.” (Debut. 31:8 NIV). From that day forward, I have no longer experienced my fears of abandonment and lack of trusting in God. God cared and loved me enough to allow circumstances to enter into my life, shattered marriage, to get me to learn to fully trust Him in all things. Fear is driven by Satan and wants nothing more than for God’s children to live in that state, but God seeks the opposite. Fear leads to anxiousness, lack of trust except in yourself. There it is! It becomes about me, not about Him! I pray for more of Him and less of me. I pray that I feed off the Vine, so that my branch can bear fruit. I do not want to be apart from Him, for if I am, I can do nothing. Thank you God for persevering in your pursuit of me.
Doug it has been a blessing to watch your journey with God. You have been an encouragement to me and many others. Our brokenness often blinds us from seeing God at work. Many times I feel like the father in Mark who says to Jesus, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” I am so thankful that God is faithful despite my wanderings.