In this time of worldwide tension and uncertainty, God keeps reminding me how important it is for us to have the faith of little children (Mark 10:14-15). If we are truly His sons and daughters, we should trust Him just as a young child trusts their parents, implicitly…
Romans 8:15 “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
It’s occurred to me that most children actually have much sounder minds than we do as adults, though we like to feel good about all the “wisdom” we’ve gained from our years of experience… I put wisdom in quotations because we certainly all gain knowledge throughout our lives, but true wisdom only comes from God. And when it comes to faith, we have much to learn from the youngest and most innocent of our human family. Often by the time we’ve reached adulthood, our years of hills and valleys have conditioned us to allow our life circumstances to determine our level of peace. While everything is going well, we feel great, but as soon as things start to look bad, we give in to anxiety and despair. We have unconsciously trained ourselves to walk by sight, and not by faith. Young children, however, just don’t stress about the things we stress about. They aren’t weighed down with fears of how the bills will be paid, or if there will be food shortages, or how changing laws may effect their freedoms, or even whether they’ll run out of toilet paper. Sure, you may be thinking, they’re not responsible for worrying about these things. But my question to you is: are we? What did Jesus have to say about this?
Luke 12:22-31 “… Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. … Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
… Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?
And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.”
God says that we are not responsible for worrying about these things. Despite how desperately the world will try to convince us otherwise, our only responsibility is to reach up in faith and take our Father’s hand, seeking His kingdom and letting Him do what He has promised He will do.
About two years ago, I was faced with the task of either selling, giving away, or throwing away nearly everything in my childhood home as we prepared to sell it. Though this experience was emotionally trying, to say the least, I praise God for it today. I can now see clearly that it was a necessary step in the journey He was preparing me for, to shift my focus from temporary things to eternal…
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
One of the things I found while dumping out the drawers of my childhood dresser was my old diary. Most of what was written was just day-to-day silliness, and as much “friend drama” as can be experienced in elementary school… But this story recorded by my 12-year-old self proved to be a profound little light to me in the midst of that unsettling time. It reminded me how easy it had been to have faith when I was younger; how I’d just trusted my cares into God’s hands without a second thought. It reminded me that He was with me in the present storm, as surely as He’d been with me back then…
June, 2007 (Final day of 7th Grade)
“Now I have to explain why this was the most memorable last day of school ever!! During the second recess it started drizzling, so we had to go inside. Third period was supposed to be the 7th and 8th graders end-of-the-year party. There were snacks, and Justin brought Freezies, and everyone was just hanging out in the hallway and the three upstairs classrooms. For about half an hour everything was going fine. It had started raining pretty hard outside, but no one really cared. After all, it was just rain. By the end of that peaceful half-hour, though, I noticed a crowd starting to gather by the large hallway windows looking out towards the lake. I went over to see what all the commotion was about, and there it was–a massive funnel cloud forming over the water. By this time the wind was blowing very hard and it had begun to pour. Suddenly the power went out, and a few kids screamed. Our teachers came to tell everyone to return to their own classrooms. That’s when things got a bit intense. Miss L told us all to sit against the wall, opposite from the classroom windows. We could see the trees whipping dangerously around just outside the glass. It was raining so hard now that it was difficult to see much of anything outside. Our principal, Mr. S, came on the speakers, telling everyone to remain calm and to stay away from the windows, because there were some branches breaking off the trees. Some of the kids in my class were very frightened. A few of 8th grade girls were crying. I think they were scared, but maybe they were also upset because they felt like their last day of elementary school was ruined… I overheard that one of the girls really hates storms because they remind her of her mother, who had passed away a few years ago… Her best friend was also crying because she was crying, and even [one of my friends] (who’s one of the toughest people I know!) looked like she was about to cry. I was starting to feel a little worried myself, so I prayed to God that nothing would happen, and everything would be fine. I prayed that the storm would let up, and everyone would be able to get home safely.
After I finished praying I felt much better, and I kept myself busy trying to comfort the girls who were afraid. I think I was the only one who noticed the wind slowing down outside. Those girls were still very frightened and upset. Some silly boys in my class were making it worse by saying things like, “Are we gonna die?!” My teacher even had to send two of them to the office. Then, Mr. S came on the speaker in our room,
“Miss L?”
“Yes?”
“Is your class upstairs or downstairs?”
“Upstairs…”
“You’re supposed to be downstairs! Bring them down right away.”
Our class had been making such a big fuss, we hadn’t heard him tell all the 7th and 8th graders to come downstairs to take shelter in some rooms near the center of the building. This freaked some of the kids out even more. We all lined up and started heading towards the stairwell. As we went, I looked out the hallway windows and noticed that the storm didn’t seem nearly as bad as before. I smiled inside. I knew that God had heard my prayers.”
I’m not sure why the entry ended there, maybe I was called to dinner and forgot to finish writing. But as the experience replayed in my mind, it picked up where the entry left off. I remember feeling that it was unnecessary to still go downstairs, but I figured that it would help put the other students’ minds at ease. In my mind though, the storm was already over. I had complete peace. I remember as we were herded into that small inner room and told to sit on the floor that I felt bad for the students who were still visibly anxious. I wished that they knew that God had it under control, but I didn’t know how to share that with them, so I just tried to help take their minds off of it instead. Sure enough, within about 20 minutes or so, our principal announced that the funnel clouds had dissipated, and the storm had died down enough that school would be let out as usual at 3:15. He wished us all a wonderful summer, and that was that.
In the difficult moment when I came across this journal entry, feeling like the ground was being pulled out from under me, it blessed me with blurry eyes and a choked up throat. It reminded me of the simple faith that I’d had from before I could even remember… Before things had gotten so “complicated.” But then I thought, had they really? Was God not still completely in control?… Of course He was. I vowed from that point forward to not allow any circumstances to steal my joy or faith in God. I would not give them that power. If 12-year-old Sabrina could take hold of her heavenly Father’s hand in the storm, and believe He was taking care of it before seeing any evidence of the fact, then so could 24-year-old Sabrina.
And so can you today.
Let us surrender to the simple faith of childhood, and let God give us peace in the current storm, instead of letting the storm steal our peace. Let us not give in to the spirit of fear, but claim our identity as God’s children, who have been given a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Psalm 46:1-3, 7 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling… Yahweh of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
