Overcoming Fear (GG)
OVERCOMING FEAR
One particular spot where I lived as a missionary became like a “place of dragons.” It was full of things I was afraid of and did not know how to cope with. Once in a while I felt as though I were about to be devoured. “Sore broken” is the psalmist’s expression, and I thought I knew how he felt. I was on my way back to that place one night, camping where we usually did at the junction of two rivers. The Indians had made me a reed hut to sleep in and had finished their own hut-building, fishing, eating, and talking. Everything was quiet except for the night birds and tree frogs. There was nothing especially distinct about this journey back home. I had made it before. But as I lay in my blanket I began to feel something like what fell on Abraham: “a horror of great darkness.” How could I go back to those “dragons”? My heart was about to turn back.
Then I thought of Jesus’ words to His disciples: “Lo, I am with you all the days.” If He was with me then I was certainly with Him. The place of dragons was the place He was taking me, and I was still following—I had not gotten off the track. I was with Him still, sharing in a small measure His cross.
Never for a second does God lose sight of His objective. It is we who forget what it is. We are distracted by immediate circumstances, and it is no wonder we want to give up the whole thing. It was the “joy that was set before Him” that enabled Jesus to endure the cross.
Without a clear understanding of the ultimate objective, the intermediate objectives make no sense to us. “Why this, Lord?” we keep asking. But if we bear in mind that we shall, beyond any doubt whatsoever, finally dwell in the house of the Lord, settle down to stay in His presence, then the intermediate pastures and waters, even the valley of the shadow or the place of dragons, are understood. They are stations and landings along the journey, and they will not last long.