Whom Shall I Fear?

As I gather my things for Fall and Halloween, funny stories make their way into my "funny" head!

When I say I was a good kid, I don't mean to brag it was only because I was just too chicken to do anything wrong. But that all changed one Halloween night when some friends talked me into soaping windows. I was reluctant but they persuaded me that it would be fun! (It wasn't all that much fun by the way). We all took off as going trick or treating but our bad deed was to be carried out after we had gathered all the candy that a bunch of gangly, middle schooler girls could get.

We, as planned, went to houses on the next block over as not to be recognized.  As we started out, being a newcomer to this sort of thing I was slower than the rest of them. Just as I put soap to a window, with knees already knocking, someone jumped up in the window and shouted "Boo".  Stricken with fear, my heart stopped and I fell backwards nearly in a faint. After pulling myself together I ran for my life.  Looking back I bet some mischievous adult got a good laugh that night.  Not a good first try at being "bad"! Too ashamed to tell my cohorts of my failed attempt, I just sneaked home, never to try soaping windows again. Fear had paralyzed my attempts at being “bad”!

Today I read Psalm 27 which is a song concerning fear.  What are you afraid of today?  I tried to think today of just what I fear most.  And the answer was “plenty”!  If I look around me I see wars as David did in the Psalm, I see bad people who could attack and devour, and I see a seemingly Godless world but David opens his song with:  

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

Psalm 27:1-2

I, as most people, fear the unknown, I fear what could be in my future as I grow old and I fear the “odds”!  By odds I mean my life has been good up to now, are my odds about to be up?  Waiting for the other shoe to drop “so to speak”!  What does God say to me in this Psalm that could help me with these fears?  

I remain confident of this:

   I will see the goodness of the Lord

   in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;

   be strong and take heart

   and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:13-14

In all that I could be afraid of I must remember with David that God is good.  I must be strong and take heart and the hardest thing is to wait!  For then I will see His goodness in the midst of my fears.

but those who hope in the Lord

   will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

   they will run and not grow weary,

   they will walk and not be faint

Isaiah 40:31

Even now I recall the events of that night of “soaping” with trembling,  but what strikes me is the fear that a “BOO” brought to my fainting heart.  

Lord, the stronghold of my life, OF WHOM SHOULD I BE AFRAID!