17 The Lord your God is in your midst—a warrior bringing victory.
He will create calm with his love;
he will rejoice over you with singing.
Reflection
My first thought when I read this passage was CALM?!? Calm would be lovely; calm is what we need! At this point in time, I am finding it hard to be calm about almost anything. I just feel a sense of urgency and frustration way more than I should. I was packing to go on what should be a really fun trip the other day, and I just felt overwhelmed. Then that seems ridiculous to be overwhelmed about packing for a fun time with my friend. Anything can put stress on our systems.
In the past week, I have had discussions with two different people about how sometimes things we really want to do can be the things that terrify us the most – those things that are new but may be hard or may be just unknown. Examples may include trying a new hobby, joining a club, going to a coffee shop by ourselves, traveling somewhere new, starting a new job, or saying hi to a stranger.
There have been lots of studies done on doing things that scare us. A study at Duke revealed 47% of our actions are habitual. That is a big percentage of things we just do – we maybe don’t even think about them or challenge our way of thinking. An MIT study found that when you start doing the thing you are afraid of, fear fades. When you open yourself up to take that first step, you open yourself up to many new opportunities. Both of the people that I was talking to this past week did the thing they were scared to do, and are really happy they did. We hear stories all of the time about people who took a leap of faith to try something new and it became their new passion or career in life. What about us as Christians? Are we testing God to help us get through the scary stuff or are we testing our faith and trusting that God is with us? I was one of those odd people that at 12 years old I decided I was going to be a physical therapist and work with babies. I just knew that is what I was going to do. I got good grades and had volunteer hours, but I was waitlisted when it came time to go to PT school. Did I have a plan B? No, I didn’t. I just had this feeling in my very core that I was supposed to be a PT. I was pretty anxious as a kid, but for some reason I wasn’t anxious about this particular thing. When I think back over it, it seems very weird to me because I was scared about a lot of things and I was definitely scared of failure, so why this particular set back wasn’t an issue is beyond me – definitely was beyond me and into God’s hands. Well as I said, I knew I was meant to be a PT. The waitlist opened up at Pitt and I was able to graduate, pass my boards, and have now been a PT that works with babies for 39 years. It’s amazing how we can use our angst to move toward something, and to think that God will create calm and rejoice over us with singing! What a great thought that is!
For Pondering & Prayer
Thoughts:
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do something that scares you every day.” What is it that you are going to do that scares you? You can list those things that scare you, but that you really want to accomplish. Ask God to help you push yourself to do that one thing – not matter how small every day, and you will feel God’s calm and singing over you.
Prayer: Dear God, you know our thoughts, fears, and desires. Help us to overcome our fear to take that step to do something new and to give you all the praise, honor, and glory. Amen.
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