As I write this, we are just a day away from 2022, a brand new year.
I suppose that all of us, as we face the future, have a mixture of excitement and anxiety in us.
Some people really get excited as they anticipate the future. They see it loaded with opportunities and potential and they embrace it wholeheartedy. Perhaps you heard about the frog who went to a psychic to find out his future. She told him about a beautiful young woman he was going to meet soon. He got very excited and asked her, “And when will I meet his beautiful woman?” “In about a week.” “Where will we meet?” Hesitantly, she responded, “In her biology class…”
But there are also others who face the future with anxiety and even dread. They look at the New Year ahead of them with concern and perhaps even dread. Maybe that’s you. Maybe you’re afraid of tomorrow.
So, what do you do if you are? What is the antidote to fear? I suggest that you read this verse from the Bible written by David, the Psalmist: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid” Psalms 56:3-4 (English Standard Version.)
Ultimately, the most effective response to all the things that strike fear into our hearts is to trust God. When you face fearful things, put your trust in God. We don’t look to our own resources to bring about our own deliverance; we look to God. David said, “In God I trust.”
This is the phrase found on all American currency: “In God we trust.” I remember a sign my father in law’s had in his service station: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.” We don’t look to other people, even the government. We trust in God.
How does one trust? You give it to God and wait for Him to respond. “Depend on the Lord; trust Him, and He will take care of you” Psalms 37:5, New Century Version.
Mark Rader tells about a speed boat driver who, in a race, hit a wave at a dangerous angle which sent the boat spinning crazily through the air. He was thrown into the water and the force of it drove him deeply into the water, so deep, he had no idea in which direction the surface was. He had to remain calm and wait for the buoyancy of his life vest to begin pulling him up. Once he discovered which way was up, he could swim to the surface.
Sometimes, we find ourselves surrounded by all sorts of fearful things and don’t know which way is up. The key is to recognized the buoyancy of the Lord, trust Him and let Him pull us up.
David’s point is that when you face fearful things in your life, you put your trust in God. Now, I admit that that can be the hardest thing. Henri Nouwen was talking to trapeze artists, the Flying Rodleighs, and the leader of the troupe said that there are two types of trapeze artists: the flyers and the catchers. The flyer leaps out and as he is flying, the catcher has to, with split-second precision, grab him.
“The secret is that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything,” said the troupe leader. “When I fly to him, I have to simply stretch out my hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron behind the catchbar.”
“You do nothing?” asked Nouwen. “Nothing. The worst thing a flyer could do is to try and catch the catcher. The flyer must trust with outstretched arms that his catcher will be there for him.”
God is our Catcher.
