In thinking about an earlier post I wrote about "fear of the known" and how especially true that is of my own walk with God, in whom I purport to believe, I wonder sometimes why I find myself stuck in the present by fear at all. The good news is that I can change my perspective and actions with each new moment and not stay there, but the bad news is that it still happens. Another factor in that fear is well summarized in a sermon I heard last weekend: "People are often so afraid of doing something wrong that they end up doing nothing at all."
Well, that hit me square upside the head I have to admit. It is so easy to take my eyes off the ball and focus on the problems in life, the obstacles to what God has for me to do. If I am honest with myself, it is even more often out of selfish fear (i.e., what will people think of me, what will this cost me, etc.) that I don't do things and refuse to step out in faith...by worrying about the problems I missed the possibilities, and did nothing. I know God is bigger than those problems, and the interesting thing to me about Him is that he never comes through the same way twice. In the Bible, He created one of the greatest men of the Bible (Paul) by making him lame, used three lepers to defeat an entire army, and healed a crippled man by telling him to get up and walk. Those are just three examples, and they are all radically different.
The common thread in these stories and many others is that no matter the method, the people who trusted in the Lord and His strength and plan saw Him come through in ways they could not even imagine. That is exactly how it has unfolded in my life and situations of late...things I knew I had to do that God had laid on my heart but I didn't want to, and so I chickened out for a time. When I finally mustered the courage, however, God came through for me and worked in those situations in ways I could not foresee, all of them different and all of them great.
It's times like this that I am truly happy and content to serve the Lord. :)
