Patrick Swayze starred in a movie called City of Joy. This is a fabulous, non-Swayze like movie that I highly recommend. He plays a young doctor running from fear of failure after losing a small boy on the operating table. He is fearful of failure and fearful of not living up to other's expectations. He finds himself running as far as India, where he ends up in a leper colony. At one point of the movie, the resident British nurse of the leper colony, confronts Swayze by asking Swayze, "Junior is there anything you believe in?" Swayze responds by affirming his believe in the Dallas Cowboys. (A tough belief system to hold onto today) She responds by suggesting that in life, each of us has one of three choices, to run, to commit or to spectate. Swayze confesses to her that he is a running spectator. In other words, given the opposition and potential for failure, he defaults to running away and watching passively as the world goes by.
How do you respond to adversity, opposition or the prospect of failure? Are you a running spectator or in the midst of adversity find yourself passionately committed to something? What is it that you are committed to and why? The book of Exodus gives an account of Hebrew women confronted by Pharaoh to kill all boys born to other Hebrew women. Their response is inspiring to us all.
In Chapter one of Exodus, verse seventeen, it says that the midwives "feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do..." Their response was one of fear and commitment. They had a choice to fear Pharaoh or fear God. But, don't miss this important point! Whatever they feared would be whatever they committed themselves to. Furthermore, whatever they chose not to fear would be the thing they ran from. They feared God and were committed to following God. They did not fear Pharaoh, and thus they ran from him.
The take away from this? Whatever we fear will end up controlling us? Also, we have a choice regarding what it is that we fear. Ultimately, we can fear God and live in obedience to God, or we can fear the stressors, the people, the possibilities, the past or the present and allow those things to control us.
What are the things dominating our thoughts today? Politics, career, finances, family, failure, children, etc? Or is it Jesus Christ, the God of the Universe? Too often I exchange the fear of God by fearing other things around me, most often a fear of failure. But ironically, when I fear God, I find peace and pupose, when I fear anything or anyone else, I only find more fear. God blessed the Hebrew midwives because they feared God. What is it for you?
"My faith is such, that I am as safe on the battle field, as I am at home in my own bed." General Stonewall Jackson
Beams Away!
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