safe in fear

Psalm 27        1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

5 For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock.

 Not too long ago, while driving between church and hospital on a visit, I heard the interview of a young veteran who had served in the army in the Middle East. He was in a group of vehicles making a routine mission between villages when his truck was blown up by an improvised explosive device. The young soldier was literally ripped into pieces. He passed out and into consciousness for a few weeks until finally waking completely in a hospital bed in Germany. His legs were both gone about the knees and his left arm was missing at the elbow. After many days of experiencing fear on the front lines and obscure sites in his service, he faced a new and almost consuming fear: the fear of what now.

 He talked about the shock of realization that life would never be the same. The grief of losing so much of what he thought was himself. The fear that he would continue to lose more and more: freedom, future, life, even family and friends. And lastly he looked into the darkness of what his fear told him life was to be and saw only that void, a blackness that made death itself pale in comparison. And then he said he saw the blessing in all that he had suffered. He was not in denial. He was not experiencing some mental break and altered view of reality. He said he knew God himself was with him. Jesus never left: from the Hummer, to the evac helicopter, to the hospital plane, to the operating rooms and rehab. The Good Shepherd and Great Physician of body and soul was there guarding, protecting, and healing him (also in body and soul). God, through Word and chaplains, lead him to the realization that even though he had been a Christian all his life, he had been trying to run away from God, get away from faith in Jesus and His Word of promise. So, God took away his legs to make him stop and fully know that he had life, joy, and wholeness in Jesus alone. He had nothing left to fear.

 I already knew this simple, earth-shattering, truth. All of us who have been plucked from this life and adopted into the new life in Christ know this miracle. But it helps to hear once again how God has worked in our brothers’ and sisters’ lives. Like rereading the accounts of patriarchs of old and the apostles and saints of early church, these fellow siblings in God’s family once again let us see that we have no fear of an earthly threat. We have the salvation, the life, and the inheritance. He has taken us into His home, even if He needed to bring us up short and take away our ability to escape. He guards and protects us, even from evils we would never have imagined. We have His security and peace.

  In His peace,  

Pastor Red