Our lives are stories that play out minute-by-minute and day-by-day. In some ways our stories are very similar: we have families, we experience tremendous highs and often devastating lows. But beyond that I see a crucial distinction. Even if I share a life experience that mirrors someone else, our responses are mostly different. More specifically, it becomes JOY versus FEAR.
There are many verses in scripture that speak about those two antithetical terms. Psalm 30:5, Isaiah 55:12, Romans 15:13, Mark 5:36, II Timothy 1:7, and Hebrews 4:1 are just a few you could start with.
The Bible is also full of stories telling us about people who walked in joy and not fear. Some of my favorites are Joseph, David, Habakkuk, Daniel, Caleb, Ruth, the widow in I Kings 17, and of course, Paul. Each one had ample reason to fear. Joseph’s story reads like a modern day episode of Yellowstone. David was hunted by a king and threatened by a giant. Habakkuk was watching the enemy seem to prosper while he couldn’t even harvest seed to plant for next year. Daniel was essentially kidnapped as a teenager and taken to a foreign land where he was thrown into a den of lions because he was praying. Caleb was told to spy out the Promised Land (the land God had promised to Israel) and found it full of giants. Ruth lost her husband and her sons (which in that day was basically a death sentence) and was eating from the leftovers remaining in the fields. The widow in I Kings 17 only has a cup of flour and a little bit of oil and Elijah tells her to fix it for him instead of she and her son (what’s that all about?). And then there’s Paul. He starts out as the guy trying to kill Christians and then finds himself in prison repeatedly for defending the very message he initially wanted to extinguish. There’s so much more in these incredible stories. Please go read them for yourself.
There are likely many similarities. But the most obvious to me is joy. If these people hadn’t grounded themselves in God (which is where true joy comes from), we might not have ever heard of them. They tell their story from a place of joy, not fear.
I have a fair amount of life experience with joy versus fear. For many years I fought the fear of losing my oldest son. He made detrimental choices that could end his life. Certainly, if anything were to happen to him I would be devastated and my grief would be immense. But I no longer live in fear. Fear tried to strip me of all peace. It made my thoughts chaotic and out of proportion. It attempted to take away my ability to actually live life as God intended it to be lived. When I began to understand the power of God’s Word and the confidence in “fearing” Him instead, all things began to fall in proper perspective. You see, to fear God is to be in awe of Him. If I’m in awe of Him, there’s no room for fear of anything else. The only thing left is joy. Nehemiah 8:10 says it this way: “………the joy of the Lord is my strength”. So now, when I speak about Brandon, you’ll find me basking in the promises of God. God loves him even more than I do! God hears all of my cries (and all of Brandon’s). Even when we might be far away, God is constantly pursuing.
Our stories can be life or death. To those we encounter, are we a breath of life or a dark cloud over the soul? Before you get angry with me ~ relax. I understand life is hard. It really sucks sometimes. I’m not unrealistic about that. But we have a choice. Do we want our story to speak of fear or joy? No matter what comes my way, I want my story to be JOY. And that should only point to one place. JESUS!
