Our fears in God's hands

As far back as I can remember, my big fear was being left alone.  I felt that I would be miserable, that my life would be spent in quiet desperation, and that I would never be happy.  Well, I'm a widow and the last of my children left home this summer, and aside from his dog, I am alone.  Miserable, in quiet desperation, unhappy?  Quite the opposite.  In fact, I've realized that the solitary life is the life that suits me best.  I can come and go as I please, I answer to nobody but myself and God, and I can do what I feel needs to be done without concern about others.  What I didn't realize is that a life alone is not a lonely life.  I have access to my children through Facetime and the phone, I have work and friends, and actually I am busier now than I was when David was home.  Not that I don't miss my kids--of course I do.  But I wouldn't dream of moving to be with them or begging them to live near me.  This season of my life is a season of work and God and writing, and all of those--even work at times-- call for solitude.

For many people, life is a series of living through fear.  We fear something and go to great lengths to make sure that it doesn't happen, even though our running from that fear puts us in greater pain or distances us from God's will.  Take people in domestic abuse, for example.  They know that they are in danger; they realize that their lives are escalating out of control; yet their fear of leaving their partners and finding help so overwhelms them that they stay in the relationship. It's not uncommon to find that they only leave when the partner begins abusing the children.  Some don't even leave them.  They can't imagine life without the stability of the partner's job or money or status, and so they stay.

What people don't realize is that God is with us through that fear.  He will be with us when we take the necessary steps.  He will be with us through the hardship that might come after.  He will be with us when our situation changes.  If we put our trust in him, we can be sure that this will become good for us.  I'm not saying that we will regain our former station; I'm saying that he can teach us to be content in whatever station we find ourselves.

What is your biggest fear?  For me it was being alone.  Nothing overcame that fear like being alone and finding that it isn't the end of my world.  It's the beginning.  I pray that you face your fear and ask the Lord how you can walk through it so that it no longer overwhelms you.