I Was Afraid

Commentary

Jesus said, "Cast your fear upon the Lord." Yet, in human circumstances I have had faith-freeze. Facing the idea of death as a Christian with the living hope of eternal life is very different from facing imminent possibility of dire events.

Something happened this morning that ended up being far less serious than what others now face. It happened at my house early today and proved enlightening regarding me and raw fear.

The recent terrorist-caused tragedies across the Atlantic, in Paris, have been close to the heart; and I went to bed with them on my mind last night.

For the majority of French people and tourists, the wolf is at the door, even through the door--a far, far different thing than being at the viewing end of a camera as are television-watchers.

This morning I awoke around 7 a.m. to the sound of loud pounding on the front door of our home. The doorbell had not been rung. Just the pounding in three equally strong and loud hits came upon my awakening awareness.

I remained still and silent, eyes closed, in those ticking moments; I heard my husband get up and go down the hall. I heard the door open and his voice saying, "Oh, alright." I did not hear the front door close. I did not hear any more movement. I thought I heard a car or truck motor idling outside.

This kind of pounding on the door never has happened early in the morning. Therefore, I knew that no one had been locked out or unsuccessful with doorbell attempts and thereby driven to beat hard against the door.

We have a very strong front door that requires very hard hits to make such loud sounds.

My husband got up and did not return to bed soon. I lay still. Listening. I did not make a move to get up. I felt fear, physically, in my upper arms and chest, which retained a tingly cold feeling of fright.

It was fear due to the happening of the never-before - the kind of harsh, loud awaking that has never happened.

After maybe three minutes that felt like 15 or more, I ventured out of the bedroom at the far end of the house. I met my husband coming toward me down the hall.

"It was the police," he said. "The garage door was left open." I leaned toward my husband and he hugged me, saying, "It's scary, isn't it?" He continued: "I thought it might be bad news."

He had seen, through the front window, police car lights flashing. He has no fear of police, and he opened the door, still uneasy. I wish he had not had that moment of dread of terribly bad news.

I returned to bed free of any "big bad wolf" thoughts but with thoughts of how this episode reminded me that I am a different person when faced with imminent unknowns that just might include danger.
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A friend of mine once said, "I never say that I will never deny the Lord. I pray that I will never do so." I think more than ever that she is wise toward the inability she has--and most of us have, I think--to completely know ourselves in light of tempting times the likes of which we have never faced.

The experience of this morning will impel me to pray more for those in fear at this hour in the world, including in and beyond Paris, those who know that terrorists are near. They have killed even more people since their deadly and wounding attack on the offices of a magazine in Paris and on a policeman that offered no threat outside.

Other terrorists have taken hostages and killed two, goes the report, at a kosher deli, in days of preparation for Shabbat, in Paris. As yet, no terrorists that have been at large have been captured or killed. France at this moment is under a prolonged active anti-terror operation.

Are we now ready to face up to the fears of more terrorists'* targeting and planning against our respective nations? On our respective shores now, living among us--as the Boston marathon bombing most recently in the U.S.--are  radical Muslims making plans, waiting for opportunity for success each time.

Police and militia are trained to overcome their fears or to fight in spite of them. Most of us, however, would freeze in place if confronted.

I remember what I heard a local imam say, in effect, "We do not practice Sharia law here because this country does not allow it." Why did not one of us in the room think to ask, "Then why do you choose to remain in this country?"

I know that this imam's mosque five minutes away has converted former members of Christian churches. Do those converts realize the harsh punishments of Sharia* that their imam would enforce if ever allowed to do so?

Jesus said, "Be not afraid." We readjust ourselves, as needed and to the extent we are able, by renewing this trust: whatever happens and whatever the outcome for us, we are eternally living and safe in God's care.

In Corrie ten Boom's account of her fears of Nazi arrests in Holland, she wrote that her father assured her not to fear but to trust God. He reminded her that he, her father, always gave her her train tickets just before they boarded a train. So, too, would her heavenly Father give her the grace she would need when she most needed it.

Her survival story proved the truth of her earthly father's trust in God for her. Her fears were well-founded, for she and her sister were was put into a concentration camp, where her sister Betsy died, after having influenced hardened guards by her trust in God. 

Evening and Morning - sung via YouTube. 

*This article link "terrorists" is from an Internet link I cannot vouch for except that it appears to be genuine. There is much misinformation via Internet sources, so it seems right to post this disclaimer. In an effort of fairness toward the writer of the article, this disclaimer is not intended to say that it the article is not, on the other hand, a true account. One can only try to question everything, within reason, and compare accounts and their sources, especially in times of alarm or fear.

*Sharia law - many examples online. Various explanations and definitions online give various interpretations and some distortions.

We Guard Freedom and Help the Innocent...Together

Dr. Keith Ablow expressed meaningful thoughts after the Boston Marathon bombings, and his statements gave focus for follow-up days. For example:   

• "The pursuit of liberty is a marathon." 

• "...We are vulnerable, because we are free and strong."

All freedom-loving people experience push-back in different forms and at different levels of intensity.  I agree with those who describe terrorist attacks as acts of cowardice. They are violent actions arising from misleading and evil thoughts, from moral blindness, and from deep spiritual emptiness. In calculating deliberateness, to shed the blood of innocent people requires twisting one's self outside the gates of civil life, beyond the influence of all that is bright and true. It is to place one's self in utter darkness beyond rational thought or awareness of the holy. 

Many children and young adults today face a world their parents and grandparents never anticipated for them. We grieve within ourselves, wishing we could change the world back to, at minimum, hidden evils, not overt terrors. 

I wonder again how my parents felt when their oldest son went to war as a fighter pilot. On a bright and warm day the world changed for his generation. He dropped out of college and went in the direction of a call to serve, to fight, to defend. He fought in World War II as a pilot of a P-38 Lightning, over North Italy and other areas, including as I recall from my mother's reminiscences, Egypt. At age 22, he held captain rank in the U. S. Army Air Force/Corps. Advancement came quickly in those days. 

Britain, the U. S., and Canada--who sent fighters--remained free during the war. Britain, however, was not spared extreme bombings. These and other countries of that time are free today, operating under free governments. Yet, none is free from threats and attacks by their foes.  All have a sacred trust to remain vigilant over freedoms. 

We are free people; due to our love of freedom, we are not free yet from those who hate freedom. As a Christian, I read Jesus' words, "It is for freedom that I have set you free." Christ set us free from sin--that is my belief and experience. Did He mean, perhaps, that being free in Him we therefore especially love freedom? It is for freedom that every Christian has been set free in mind and in spirit, if not in body. We have been made free to fight whatever threatens any one's freedoms, anywhere. This includes an urban area where people enjoy a race, a marathon, a celebration and commemoration of Patriot's Day, in Boston. 

We as a people, founded by men and women of faith, claimed freedom and inherited the desire to oppose anything or anyone that opposes freedom. We are free as a people to think for ourselves, as Dr. Ablow repeats. We are free to speak and to write our thoughts and to claim them without apology or embarrassment. 

It is a wonderful and proud thing to value and to defend freedom and freedom's ways, which include life not with license but with a costly liberty. Freedom is corporate, mutually experienced and guarded, not to be taken lightly or selfishly. Now, freedom reminds us to stand together. We owe a collective debt of freedom to remember those victimized by terrorist acts, to pray for them, to donate to their well-being and care, and never to forget. We remember them all, including witnesses scarred by memories. We remember the children and young people now shaken, trying to grasp what the recent violence means for their times.

We live each day in these times together. Even in solitude, we are not alone. In our different circumstances, in communities, churches, synagogues and other places we want to do more to help others. As a believer, I see freedom as God's idea, which He gave us as a  good desire in our hearts. Let us never forget freedom's value; let us guard against anyone or anything trying to destroy our freedom to dream, to strive, to hope, and to endure...together. It is for freedom that God has made us free. We are never weak when we love freedom enough to go forward in the light of each new, precious day.    

- Dr. Keith Ablow on Boston Marathon Bombings - Link
- FBI - Video posted to help the public - Link

- Boston Strong. Bruins fans sing The Star Spangled Banner - Link

Copyright (c) 2013 Opinari Writers.

Yes, We Consider and Taste the Goodness

Image via Wikipedia

Painting of young Jesus and John the Baptist

Consider the goodness of Jesus, a Jew born in a time and place of the Roman Empire. It conquered Judah, Samaria, and beyond. God sent Jesus in those harsh days and revealed him as the one, God as man. 

     Today, some refer to "the Christian faith" and "Christianity." When he grew up and taught, Jesus didn't use those terms. They did not exist, and anyway, he warned about the dangers of religion. As the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus--Jeshua--showed complete authenticity, something longed for in every generation. He was not about religion. The Christ could not be untrue to the Father in heaven, to others, or to himself.

     Consider the forgiveness Jesus gave. A woman caught by others in adultery was close to being stoned when Jesus said a few words that made every hand drop the weapon in it and every foot depart and go its own way. At another time, a woman who knew that her sins had been forgiven shed tears of gratitude and love when she washed his feet. He said, "...she has shown great love," because "her sins, which were many, have been forgiven." (Luke 7:36-8:3)

     Consider the strength of Jesus. It is written that Albert Einstein said, as he saw Germany being run over by Hitler's conquering government, that "he  had always thought that when the crisis came to Germany, the universities would be the bulwark of human freedom..." However, the centers of higher learning and intellectualism "capitulated and collapsed" under the invasive pressures of the increasingly harsh and ruling government. It was the Christian church "that has kept alive whatever of freedom is left...."  Consider the goodness of unwavering and suffering strength, which is of God. In the 1930's, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Germany, the ten Boom family of Holland, and countless other believers across Europe--kept human freedom alive by living in Christ and like him being faithful unto death. Taste that goodness!  

Romans 8:31-39

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? .... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Quoted texts are from Forward Day by Day, 1937, reprinted for July 6, 2010.

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Copyright (c)2011 Opinari Writers Network