Fear-free Living

Yesterday I shared with the kids a devotional I'd read about faith and fear.  The two emotions are definitely at odds with one another.  What struck me was the description I read in Hebrews about Abraham, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would alter receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."  Abraham did not know where he was going and he just went!  That is faith!  When I read it, the idea of that kind of a faith really excited me and I tried to pass on that enthusiasm to the kids.  I wanted them to see living a life of faith can be exciting, an adventure, even when we don't know what is ahead!

The devotional went on to describe a life of faith like a journey.  The author said, "You must also be willing to take your ideas of what the journey will be like and tear them into tiny pieces, for nothing on the itinerary will happen as you expect."  Kind of reminds me of having a birth plan.  They are good to make and bad to make.  If things don't go as you hope, then you can be very disappointed. You almost need to be willing to just see what happens.  It's been like that with my son and his whole university entrance experience.  I really thought it would be smooth sailing once it was decided that was the route he was going to go, but it has been anything but smooth sailing.  However, at the same time I've been oddly enjoying how much he's been learning through this as well as myself.

Here's an example I shared with someone yesterday that really showed me all the ups and downs are worth it.  I am not great at math even though I took it right into first year university myself.  I wasn't surprised when my son struggled.  He was more literary-minded like myself and loved to read, write and communicate with others.  But he really needed these math courses.  At first they were all graphs and equations and complicated algebra.  It was awful, but then this last module he's been doing have all been on spreadsheets, calculating investments, interest, annuities, amortization...all things a big boy will have to know one day how to do.  Never in a million years did I think I would hear him talk using those terms, let alone understanding them.  It was almost as if the course writers knew this one child in their class would need this if he got married one day and they then wrote it just for him.

When he talks to me now, I can picture him sitting at a table with his future wife describing their finances and I know now he'll be able to make wise decisions just because of this one course he's been pushed to take.  He's learned things I never would have been able to teach him and even though this was a course we both hated a few weeks ago, we are both so grateful for it now!

The devotional summed it all up in these words, "Your Guide will not keep to any beaten path.  He will lead you through ways you would never have dreamed your eyes would see. He knows no fear, and He expects you to fear nothing while He is with you."

That is for sure - I wanted to stick to the path that was beaten, even though one of my all time favourite poems is called "The Road Less Travelled"!  I would have chosen a gr. 2 math course to get him in, not this one.  But here I am on this awful math path and now I'm so glad we're on this unbeaten ground!  HE KNOWS NO FEAR.  God is not a God of fear and HE EXPECTS ME TO NOT BE FEARFUL EITHER.  Oh.  Newsflash.  No fear because He is with me.  How do I forget that so easily?  I told my friend yesterday, "Remind me when I get like that again to remember what I learned!!!!"

Fear-free living.  It's a command.  I better follow it.