Fear is thinking that the future will not be good. (my definition)

Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by a perceived threat. (dictionary definition)

Pink from Tuesday

I have tried to cast off the mantle of fear all my life, since I can remember thinking thoughts. Fear of no one liking me, fear of will I get into college, will I graduate, does he love me, will I be alone, will my baby be healthy, will he follow God, will he choose the narrow road, can I walk the narrow road, will I be alive next year...

Would you want to have a written schedule for your entire life, telling you what choices to make each day? You check your schedule right after waking up - today do yoga, then grocery shop, call Mary and then sign up for the photography class. In the afternoon.... you get the drift.

No, you don't want to be told everything, just the big things. Well, it doesn't work that way. Every hour in our day is what makes us who we are, they bundle together to create us. The hours congregate to form our days, which all strung together form our souls and bodies, and our lives.

We do have help, God. He knows the best path for our lives. Following His will for us, fear goes out the door.

Follow God's will. Oh yes, really simple eh? Ask people how they know what is God's will for them. I have been asking people for decades. I want to know. How do you know?

Mankind has been struggling with knowing God's will for over 5,000 years, so I do not pretend that I can solve this for everyone. I am working on figuring it out for me. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Isaiah 55

We have the Bible, inspired by His Spirit. Any choice I make won't go against the Bible. We have prayer and meditation, listening to Him and talking with Him. We have other people who walk closely with Him to shed light on our path when our flashlight battery is flickering, advisors I choose carefully. We have churches, communities of others who are trying to walk a similar path as us. And we have the peace of the Holy Spirit inside us, that grows and flourishes when we are walking in the path God intended for us.

Good news, God loves me (and you) so much that when I veer off the path, He will do all He can to redirect me and get me back on track. Even let me get cancer. That's a lot of love.

So how will I stay on this path from here on out? By looking upwards, every step of the way. I can't do it by myself. Trust that He loves me so much that He will gently show me the way. Be Still and Know that He is God.

This was handwritten on a slip of paper found in one of Mike's Great-Grandmother's Bibles upstairs in her home in Midland Michigan. It is part of a poem by Louise Haskins

It is beautiful...

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
Give me light that I may travel safely into the unknown.

And He replied,

Go out into the darkness
and put your hand into the hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light
and safer than a known way.