FEAR FACTOR

Fear paralyzes—it really does.

When I was seven, and staying home with my second oldest sister one Saturday night, a drunken woman tried to break into our home and kill my sibling and I.  Our house looked just like our neighbor’s, and it was the neighbor’s husband that was having an affair with the woman.

When the first brick crashed through the glass of the front storm door, I felt a huge shot of electricity run down my left arm from my shoulder to the bottom of the elbow.  The rest of me didn’t move too well—and then not at all—when the second brick went through our double-plated living room window.

 

Fortunately, my 15 year-old sister kept a level head and steady fingers as she dialed the Chicago Police, who were only about six blocks away.  The next call she made was to our folks, who were over a mile away and got there before the police (Dad always did want an excuse for driving fast). 

During the commotion, the other neighbor--awakened out of sleep, asked her husband to chase the woman she saw breaking into our house.  A former college football player, Dick tackled her near the end of the block (wearing only his pajamas) and held her until the police arrived.  Best of all, seeing as that it was the ‘good ole’ days, a pharmacist from two doors down gave my parents a couple of pills to help me sleep midst my hysteria.

The woman got her jail time, the neighbor got divorced from her husband, and God used a number of different sources to help protect us.  I didn’t realize until decades later that  I suffered from PTSD because of the experience—something the Lord continues to deliver me from as time marches on. 

Although there is peace in the event being behind me, and our having escaped with our lives, the greatest peace has come through the increased intimacy in my walk with Him, as He refuses to knuckle-under to my demands that He deliver me sooner, rather than later.

b(Les)sings

Psalm 64

King James Version (KJV)

Psalm 64

 ¹Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
 ²Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
 ³Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
 ⁴That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
 ⁵They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
 ⁶They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.
 ⁷But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
 ⁸So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
 ⁹And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.
 ¹⁰The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.