Life Unafraid {Day 2}

*This month, I’m joining a bunch of other bloggers in a challenge to write for 31 days on a topic about change. Having struggled with fear (sometimes paralyzing) for a lot of my life and missing much of the living that I know God wants for me, I am on a mission to live unafraid for 31 days straight, challenging you to join me. And I’m writing about it. You can catch up here if you’ve missed any of the days.

A month ago, I feared this kind of thing. Getting on the wrong bus on the way home from school. Okay, it was the right bus, but it was going the wrong way.

I knew that living here in this land of Deutsch would present all kinds of challenges such as this one. The kind that could get us lost or worse, in a foreign city full of unknown streets and unfamiliar words spoken by everyone but us. But this kind of thing was the very reason we came — so we could know the peace and provision and the enough-ness of God more than we’d ever known it before. So we could show our children that real living has nothing to do with fear and everything to do with trusting Almighty God.  I saw the bus number and, without checking the words next to the number (which would have told me the direction it was headed), I made us run, and the bus driver opened the doors like on the movies and we jumped on just before he drove away. We found three seats together in the back before it crossed my mind that we may have just boarded the wrong bus. Oh, and I didn’t have the little book with all the bus schedules in it. (Yeah, from now on, I think I’ll tape it to my belly.) You know, the information that would have allowed us to make a new plan, find another way to get home.

Not knowing exactly where this bus route would take us is a key element of this story. Because, well, if I knew where we were headed, then I could have planned a way to get home. But I didn’t know where we were headed. And, I think it’s true for all us, not knowing what’s coming is the food of fear.

But I don’t have to know what’s coming. I just have to trust the One Who is already there. When I choose to live unafraid, I make the choice to not be shaken when I don’t know what’s next. I give up the pretend-control that I think I need, and I trust the One Who actually has control.

I read it few days ago, but God has been branding that truth onto the walls of my spirit ever since. And the truth of Almighty God’s eternal and always good and not-limited-by-time crazy love for me kept me calm and absolutely unafraid as I sat there on the bus with my two kids, riding through the foreign city I have only called home for one month.

I am curious to know what kinds of things happen that threaten your peace. What kinds of things in your days threaten the unafraid life that God wants for you?

We eventually found a stop that looked vaguely familiar, so we pushed the button that told the bus driver we wanted out, and we stepped out onto the sidewalk. Unafraid. Then we found our way to the river and followed the path on which we’d ridden our bikes a few weeks ago. The best part was the freedom to enjoy the walk. Because I was unafraid, I was able to find the delight in the extra time with my kids, and the lessons that we’d just grasped together.