THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

For a couple of days this week I was at a conference in Vancouver, WA and it just so happened that my dad and I were able to room together. On Tuesday night, I was sleeping soundly and I suddenly woke up to a noise and tried to sit up. As I was doing so, I twisted my shouler and tweaked it. Man, did that hurt!!

The noise part was just my dad getting a drink of water!

Had I just not freaked out and opened one eye, I would have been fine. I freaked and then tweaked!

There is junk in life just like that. We don't need to freak out over things that may not be an alarming situation even though our first response is to believe so. Sometimes we make a good day a bad one by worrying over something that never materializes. Or we ruin our home by being overly worried about something that never ends up happening.

I've had older friends who could have lived life in a much more exciting way. They could have invested their lives and huge money into God's work and other great human need type organizations. They didn't. They feared certain 'bump in the night' things that had nothing to do with faith. And the very things they feared, those 'bump in the night' things like: Do I have enough? I haven't traveled enough. I'm retired now, it's my turn to have some fun. If I actually gave more of my time and resources I may not have enough time and resources to do what I want.

Fear is not faith, but faith always has to conquer fear. If we fear the things that might happen to us in life, we will never go forward. We will never achieve. We will never acquire. We will never realize God's grand design for our personal life.

There are things I'm dealing with that are requiring deeper levels of faith than ever before. And I must say, fear is in there. But, with God's help and the help of others, the fear is pushed out as God brings things together. Faith grows. New challenges are met. People are helped. Needs are taken care of.

The next time you wake up in the middle of the night to a sound or an anxiety, just remember, you might just be freaking out over something that is not a problem at all.

MTC!
Mark

To