fear – Hope Walking

Deliver Us From Evil

What is evil?

As I went to sleep Thursday night Russian forces were attacking Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The plant was on fire, and I did not know if I would wake up to a world covered with radioactivity. The fire died out, and I woke to the relief that at least we were out of that imminent danger – safer than I expected, but by no means safe overall. Evil is still very much with us.

But what is evil?

Most countries of the world agree that Russia’s bombing and invading Ukraine is outright evil. We all have an inner moral sense of what is right and wrong, and we often know an act is evil without having to think about it.

In the Christian worldview recognizing evil starts with recognizing the goodness of God. Our God of love created a world that is good and beautiful. You can see that everywhere. If someone destroys that goodness and beauty you know that is evil.

My grandmother Emma was born near where the war is now raging, so I decided to pinpoint her birth on historical maps. I found she was born in the Russian Empire, to a German family, in a city that is now in Poland, on land that was tumultuously disputed for centuries by those nations. Her young life was also filled with tumult. The family was working-wealthy, but her dad died when she was 10 and her brother was one. Her mom remarried badly, and they fled the country to escape the police chasing her stepfather across the border. When her mom died 5 years later, she put her brother in an orphanage and went to work.

I never got to ask my grandma about her life; she died when I was an infant. But I do know what her favorite hymn was, Be Still My Soul:

Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side.

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain

Leave to thy God to order and provide

In every change He faithful will remain.

Jesus prepared us for a world plagued with evil when he said, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage —I have conquered the world.”

And the prophet Isaiah instructs us how to not fear:

“Do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary.”

When we have the proper fear of our all powerful, world-ruling, loving God, our hearts will fear no one else.

Be still, my soul; your God will undertake

to guide the future as he has the past;

your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake;

all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know

his voice who ruled them while he lived below.

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Be Still My Soul (Sibelius)

Scriptures quoted: John 16:33 (NET) Isaiah 8:12-14 (ESV)

Katie’s Cookies

When my sons were very little I brought home from the grocery story a Sesame Street book that held a recipe for Cookie Monster cookies. The recipe page had cute illustrations of Cookie Monster throwing all the ingredients in a large bowl and stirring them up with a huge fork. We followed his lead and thus began a family tradition of Cookie Monster cookies for Christmas.

Year after year we bought more and more cookie cutters and thrust them into rolled out dough – tin soldiers, doves, Santa’s sleigh, snow men, Christmas trees and such. Icing, sprinkles and edible silver balls completed the sweet joys.

And then came the year Katie died. We knew she was struggling health-wise, but her death just before Christmas and her 11th birthday, shook us with unexpected grief. Her parents chose to receive Katie’s mourners in their home. And so, with beautiful Katie’s still body resting in the living room, we were going to gather in the kitchen to share tears and food.

What should I bring? I peered in the fridge and saw the bowl of cookie dough. Inspiration hit and I started rolling dough and cutting out crosses and angels.

Arriving at Katie’s house I handed the plate of cookies to her mom and said, “These are resurrection cookies.”

Every Christmas since we have baked crosses and angels to celebrate Katie’s life and coming resurrection.

I wonder if the same angel who went to the shepherds with the news of great joy also greeted Jesus’s mourners.

Maybe the angel who told young Mary she would bear a son also told her,“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.”

“Do not be afraid.”

“Do not be afraid,” the angels say again and again.

Do not be afraid because there was a cross, and Jesus did die and live again.

“Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

A Savior was born for Katie.

A Savior was born for you.

If you roll out some cookie dough this week, I hope you make crosses and angels,

because Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Do you believe this? Then rejoice and do not be afraid.

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Scripture references: Luke 2:10,11; Matthew 28:5,6

My Refuge

Recently, as hurricane Dorian traveled up the east coast, seeking refuge was very much in the news and on our minds. We all want to get out of harm’s way when threatening storms approach. But sometimes we can’t.

My grandmother left me a little cottage on a birch-lined road that leads to a sparkling lake in the Adirondack Mountains. It is so peaceful there. But not always…..

One July dawn we awoke to howling winds and havoc.

I was there with my 87 year old dad and two young sons. The day before had been still and hot with an eerie, yellow evening sky. At early dawn heavy rain pelted the windows and woke us. I hurried out on the porch to close windows as the rain came in sideways, driven by 60+ mph winds. Our flag was ripped from its holder and flew down the street. We heard branches in the surrounding woods snapping and falling, along with trees hitting the ground.

My dad, a WWII Navy veteran, got up and remarked, “This is like the typhoon I was in on the Pacific.”

We were in the path of a derecho, a fast-moving, massive wind storm. At any moment a large pine could crash through our metal roof. My sons looked to me for protection, but I was totally helpless.

Helpless on my own, but we were not on my own.

We had often read in God’s word:

The Lord has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “ The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid.” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

So we prayed, “God, this is your wind and these are your trees, and we ask You to keep us safe.”

We took refuge in the hand of our Helper and watched the storm pass through. As the wind died down we went back to sleep.

Later the sound of my neighbor’s chainsaw woke us to a clear, bright day. Downed trees blocked the road and leaned on houses, but nothing had landed on our roof.

I often remember the peace that covered me after I prayed in that storm. Storms of life come unexpectedly, but the hand of the Lord my Helper is always with me, and He is my refuge.

Would you like safe refuge from the storm you are in right now? It doesn’t matter if the storm is a hurricane wind at your door or a churning sea of grief and fear in your heart. God is there with you. He knows why the wind is blowing; He made the wind. He knows why your heart is breaking; He made your heart and He loves you.

The prophet Isaiah tells it like this: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:3,4)